_The Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church by Heinrich Schmid, D.D. Third edition, revised Translated from German and Latin by Charles A. Hay, D.D. and Henry E. Jacobs, D.D. Copyright 1875 and 1889, Charles A. Hay and Henry E. Jacobs Copyright 1899, Henry E. Jacobs and Charles E. Hay Reprinted 1961 by Augsburg Publishing House_ Pages 407-499 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER III. OF THE GRACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE APPLICATION OF REDEMPTION. PARA. 39. Preliminary Remarks. Before passing on to the consideration of the subject next in order, we preface the remark, that a number of dogmatic topics, belonging in this connection, were not further developed until by the later Dogmaticians, and were by them for the first time assigned a special place in the system; these are the topics of Vocation, Illumination, Conversion and Re- generation, Mystical Union and Renovation, which all the earlier Dogmaticians mention only occasionally, and usually in the section concerning Free Will, but have not more fully elab- orated. Not until the time of CAL. did the Dogmaticians begin to arrange these topics together; by so doing they seek to collect, under one general topic, all that is to be said con- cerning what God, or more accurately, the Holy Ghost, does, in order to induce fallen man to accept of salvation through Christ, and what takes place in order to bring about the de- signed change in man. From the time of QUEN. this was all embraced under the head, The Grace of the Holy Spirit in the Application of Redemption. [1] It cannot be denied that thereby an advance was made in the systematic development of Dogmatics; and, as the earlier Dogmaticians did so little towards giving definite shape to the conceptions here in ques- tion, we find ourselves limited to the later Dogmaticians for our statements in illustration of this subject. Yet the intro- ----------End of Page 407----------------------------------------- duction of an independent development of these conceptions led to an arrangement of the entire doctrine which we cannot call a happy one. After the above mentioned topics, to which that of justification is attached, have been treated under the head of "The Grace of the Holy Spirit in the Application of Redemption," they discuss faith and good works (HOLL. add- ing, besides, that of penitence), but only after the doctrines concerning the Divine Word and the Sacraments; and they distinguish these [faith and good works] as the means of sal- vation on the part of man, from the Word and the Sacraments as the means of salvation on the part of God. [2] According to this arrangement, we meet with especially this difficulty, that the full discussion of the doctrine of faith is delayed so long. If we were not, indeed, justified in departing from this arrange- ment for this reason alone (since our task is simply historical fidelity, and we have no other interest to serve), yet from another quarter a reason arises that does justify us in so de- parting. For, according to the arrangement introduced by the later Dogmaticians, the articles concerning Justification and Faith, which had been so closely connected together at the time of the Reformation, and by the earlier Dogmaticians, are too widely separated; as, upon the whole, the topics for- erly placed in the foreground here find (though it be only in the arrangement) a less favorable place. And, as we regard ourselves called upon to pay equal attention to the earlier and to the later Dogmaticians, we think we are compelled to devi- ate from the arrangement employed by the later Dogma- ticians, if for no other reason, simply to do equal justice to both classes. For this reason, therefore, and not with the view of originating a more excellent dogmatic arrangement (for that is not our mission), we adopt the plan of treating first of Faith and Justification (both of which may be compre- hended under the topic of, "The Grace of the Holy Spirit in the Application of Redemption," since both are effected only through the power of the Holy Spirit), and after that, of Vocation, Illumination, Conversion and Regeneration, Mystical Union and Renovation; so that we may be regarded as treat- ing first of the topics with which the earliest Dogmaticians commenced their discussion of this general subject, and then -------------End of Page 408--------------------------------- proceeding to treat of the topics more fully elaborated by the later Dogmaticians. [1] QUEN. (III, 461) defends the arrangement thus: "The Triune God is very desirous of our salvation, and all the three persons of the Godhead are actively engaged in securing our eternal salvation. God the Father appointed everlasting happiness and the peace of heaven for us, of His own most gracious will and in His eternal counsel; Christ, the Son of man and of God, purchased for us the appointed salvation by His blood-bought redemption, and the Holy Spirit offers and applies the purchased salvation and spiritual blessings through the Word and Sacraments. As we have hitherto considered the grace of the Father's commiseration and love,and the grace of the fraternal redemption, it remains for us to treat of the applying grace of the Spirit, which is completed in sev- eral distinct acts." (HOLL. (791): "THe applying grace of the Holy Spirit is the source of those divine acts by which the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God and the Sacraments, dispenses, offers to us, bestows and seals the spiritual and eternal favors de- signed for man by the great mercy of God the Father, and pro- cured by the fraternal redemption of Jesus Christ.") [2] This arrangement is employed by nearly all the later Dog- maticians, some of them slightly changing the order of the topics. BR. alone considers faith and works separately from the means of salvation. His plan is this: after the Offices of Christ, he intro- duces Faith in Christ, Regeneration and Conversion, Justification, Renovation, and Good Works. HOLL. subjoins to the articles con- cerning calling, illuminating, converting, regerating, justifying, indwelling and renewing grace, the following, viz., preserving grace (HOLL. (963): "Preservation is that act of grace by which the Holy Spirit, dwelling in justified and renewed men, defends them by supernatural strength against the temptations of the devil, the world, and the flesh, which solicit to sin and apostasy from God, and sus- tains and increases their faith and holiness, that they may not fall from grace, but persevere in it and be eternally saved;") and glorifying grace (HOLL. (790): "Glorification is the act of grace by which God transfers those who are justified, and who remain faith- ful until death, from the kingdom of grace to the kingdom of glory, that they may obtain eternal happiness and praise God eternally.") The earlier Dogmaticians treat only of Justification, Faith, Good Works, Repentance, and Confession, without attempting a systematic arrangement, and in the free form of unconnected topics, as has been done by Melanchthon. ------------End of Page 409---------------------------------------- PARA. 40. The Agent, the Means, the Result. As it was Christ who accomplished the work of redemption, so it is the Holy Spirit who offers us the means whereby we can appropriate that redemption to ourselves. The means is Faith, the effect of faith is Justification. PARA. 41. I. Faith. After reconciliation with God has been brought about through Christ, inasmuch as, in man's stead, He fulfilled the Law and made satisfaction for the sins of the world, thence- forward this new salvation is preached unto men, and through it the forgiveness of sin is offered to them (Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18). To become a partaker of it, there is now no need of any meritorious work on the part of man, for Christ has done everything that was necessary to secure it; but this alone is necessary, that man receive the salvation that is offered him, and that he appropriate to him- self the promise that is given; and this is done alone by faith. [1] Man cannot, however, attain this faith unless, after the redemption purchased by Christ has been preached and offered to him, he recognize the existence of this salvation, and the truth of this promise, as well as the comfort it contains for him, and can have the confidence that this salvation is designed, not for this or that one alone, but also for himself; for a joyful message can benefit a man only when he has no doubt of its truth, but can convince himself that he, too, is meant by it. [2] Faith, considered with reference to its individual elements, consists accordingly of-- 1. "Knowledge, and that explicit, of things to be believed, es- pecially concerning Christ and His merit, concerning the grace of God, or the remission of sins, and concerning the sal- vation to be obtained thereby from God." BR. (503). [3] 2. "Assent, i.e., an approving judgment of the intellect, by which we believe that those things which the Scriptures say concerning Christ and His merit and atonement for our sins, and concerning the grace of God and the promises of the free forgiveness of our sins for Christ's sake, are certainly and indubitably true, and by which we absolutely acquiesce in them." [4] QUEN. (IV, 283). ----------------End of Page 410---------------------------- 3. "Confidence, an act by which the will rests in Christ, the Mediator, both as our present good and as the cause of another good, namely, the remission of sins and the attainment of eternal life." BR. (506). [5] None of these elements dare be wanting and no one of them alone constitutes the faith of which we here speak. [6] A real knowledge of the promises is essential to faith. A mere informal or implicit faith (such as says that it believes what the Church believes) is not sufficient, but there must be an explicit faith. [7] Faith consist, further, not in the mere recognition and crediting of that which is promised, while the person may be inwardly indifferent towards it (fides his- torica); it is therefore not sufficient simply to regard as true the preaching of salvation. Therefore is neither a general assent sufficient (a belief, in general, that God is just and merciful, and has sent His Son into the world as Redeemer, but without any specific application of these truths, James 2: 19); but the assent must be special (in which the sinner de- cides that these general promises apply to himself individ- ually). [8] Finally, salvation becomes really one's own when he truly and with confidence embraces it and appropriates it to himself; and this last mentioned is, therefore, to be re- garded as the most essential element of faith. [9] Faith is, accordingly, the firm confidence which any one has attained that he dare trust in the salvation of Christ. [10] As such it is called special, also saving or justifying faith, [11] and it is the only means whereby we become partakers of salvation. [12] But this faith man cannot beget within him- self, in any manner, by his own power: for man's natural want of confidence in God can be overcome only by God Him- self. If, therefore, a man believe, this faith is to be regarded as a work of God in him, [13] and the Word and Sacraments are the means which God employs for this purpose. [14] But where such faith is wrought by God in man, there also, along with it, there has occurred a moral transformation; for he who has not recognized the comfort that is embraced in the offered salvation would not think of embracing it. But this comfort presupposes knowledge of sin and abhorrence of it. Where, therefore, this faith exists, there is always along with ----------------End of Page 411---------------------------------- it a disposition towards that which is good; [15] and this so necessarily, that where this is wanting we may assume that the faith is not of the right kind, and that the offered salva- tion has not really been appropriated. (Saving faith is true and living, not false or dead.) [16] But it must here be care- fully noted, that, although we cannot conceive of faith unac- companied by a moral disposition, yet the latter is only something that in the very nature of things accompanies faith; salvation itself can be attained only through hearty confidence. The moral disposition is, therefore, in no sense the ground upon which salvation through Christ is imparted to men. [17] As, finally, there is no lack of indications whereby a man can recognize the existence of faith in him- self, he may thoroughly satisfy himself whether the true faith that justifies has been wrought in him; [18] and this is desig- nated as stronger or weaker, just in proportion to the strength or weakness of the confidence with which he embraces the offered salvation. [19] [1] BR. (502): "Although through the passion and death of Christ there was truly offered whatever of satisfaction could be de- manded from all the men in the world for the extinction of the debt incurred through their offences, and thus to appease God and reconcile them to Himself; nevertheless, God wished that sinners should acknowledge the satisfaction offered to Him for them by the Son of God, and make it their own by faith; and so He wished that whoever embraces the Saviour by faith may enjoy His merit." Faith, in this sense, is "subjective, or that by which one believes (faith, properly so-called, which dwells in a believing man as a subject), and, as such, is distinguished from objective faith, or that which is believed (which is the doctrine of faith, and which is figuratively called faith, because it is the object of faith. Acts 6: 7; 13:8; 16:5; Rom. 12:7)." [2] AP. CONF. (II, 48): "The faith which justifies is not merely historical knowledge, but assent to the promise of God, in which remission of sins and justification are freely offered through Christ. Lest any one should suppose that it is mere knowledge, we add further: it is to wish to receive the proffered remission of sins and justification.--81. Thus we are reconciled to the Father and re- ceive the forgiveness of sins when we exercise confidence in the mercy promised in Christ." CHMN. (Loc. c. Th., II, 270): 1. "The Scripture calls faith -----------------End of Page 412--------------------------------------- knowledge* (gnosis), Luke 1:77; Col. 2:3; Eph. 3:19. To faith must be presented, and upon it enforced, from the Word of God, the decree and history of redemption, the gratuitous and universal promise that God, on account of that victim, desires to receive sinners who betake themselves by faith to the Mediators. 2. Be- cause many who hear these things and understand and know them, either neglect, or doubt, or resist, turn away from and oppose, it is necessary that assent should be united to this knowledge: not merely a general assent, but that by which each one determines with firm persuasion, which Paul calls assurance (plerophoria, Heb. 10:22), that the universal promise belongs privately, individually, and specifically to him, and that he also is included in the general promise. 3. Then, after this knowledge and assent (which are in the mind), the heart or the will, under the Spirit's influence, experiences such an inward groaning or desire, that, because it feels grievously the burden of its sins and of the anger of God, it wills, seeks, and asks that those blessings which are offered in the promise of the Gospel may be granted.... 4. When, in this way, thou turnest thyself, with mind, will and heart, from the contemplation of sin, and the consciousness of the wrath of God, and lookest unto the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, i.e., when, from the sentence of damnation, which is denounced against thee by the Law, thou fleest to the throne of grace and to the propitiation which our Heavenly Father offered in the blood of Christ, it is necessary to superadd confidence, which, with full assurance, determines from the Word of God, that God then gives, communicates, and applies to thee the benefits of the promise of grace, and that thou thus truly apprehendest and re- ceivest, unto justification, salvation, and eternal life, those things which the gratuitous promise of the Gospel offers." [3] BR. (503): "Belief can take place only in regard to those things which are mentallly conceived or embraced in simple appre- hension. Hence, knowledge is commonly regarded as the first step of faith, or the first part or the beginning of faith. That knowledge is necessary to faith in Christ, is proved by John 6:69; 17:3; Luke 1:77; Acts 17:23, 30; Eph. 4:18; Gal. 4:9." [4] QUEN (IV, 283): "The second act of faith, (viz., assent) is more distinctive than the first (viz., knowledge), for even heretics may have knowledge and yet not yield assent to the Word known. But this assent is not superficial, doubting, vacillating, but should be decided and strong, on which account it is called the evidence of ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *[Notitiam et scientiam.] -------------------End of Page 413------------------------------------- things not seen, Heb. 11:1. This act of faith does not depend upon the evidence of things, or upon the knowledge of causes and prop- erties, but upon the infallible authority of God's Word." [5] HOLL. (1178): "Confidence is an act of the will, by which the sinner, converted and regenerate, earnestly desires and seeks the mercy of God, secured by Christ's merit, and embraces Him both as his own present good, and as the cause of the forgiveness of sins and of eternal salvation, relies upon Him against all terrors, and securely reclines and rests upon Him." QUEN. (IV, 284): "This confidence is nothing else than the acceptance or apprehension of the merit of the God-man, appropriat- ing it to ourselves individually. The following passages indicate the apprehension: John 1:5, 12; 17: 8; Rom. 5:17; Gal. 3:14; Luke 8:13; Acts 8:14; James 1:21; Acts 10:43; 1 Tim. 1:15. Appropriation is indicated by the applicative and possessive pro- nouns my, me, mine, as is evident from Job 19:25; Is. 45:24; John 20:28; Gal. 2:20 sq. It belongs, therefore, to confidence, to seek Christ, Is. 55:6; Amos 5:4; earnestly to seek, Ps. 42:1, 2; to apprehend Him with His righteousness, Rom. 9:30; to em- brace Him with all acceptation, 1 Tim. 1:15; to appropriate His merit to one's self, Gal. 3:26; Phil. 1:21; and sweetly to rest in Him, Rom. 4:21; Heb. 10:22. This apprehension belongs to the will and is practical; it involves the reclining of the whole heart and will upon the merit of Christ; it denotes desire for and access to Christ, and the application and confident appropriation of His merit: and this is truly confidence." [6] BR. (508): "This, therefore, is the faith which is said to apprehend Christ or His merit, particularly as it is assent joined with confidence, or confidence joined with assent, consisting of these acts united, and is designated now by the name of the former, and then by that of the latter, the other always being implied. Whence it appears how faith exists in different faculties; in the understanding and will, namely, as something compounded and united in divers acts directed to the same object, and preserving a certain order amongst themselves and towards that one and the same object." HOLL. (1166): "Faith is in the intellect with respect to knowl- edge; and assent, in the will with respect to confidence." QUEN. (IV, 282): "These three parts of faith are expressed by John 14:10, 11, 12, where verse ten speaks of knowledge, verse eleven of asssent, and verse twelve of confidence." The three con- stituents of faith are conveyed in the phrases credere Deum, credere Deo and credere in Deum. "Credere Deum signifies, to believe that -----------------------End of Page 414------------------------------ God exists; credere Deo signifies, to believe that those things which He speaks are true; credere in Deum signifies, by believing to love Him, by believing to go to Him, by believing to cling to Him and to be incorporated into His members. Heretics can have the first, the second the orthodox alone, the third the regenerate; and there- fore the latter always include the former, but this order cannot be reversed. The former two pertain to the intellect, the third to the will; the first and second have respect to the entire Word of God, the third to the promise of grace and the merit of Christ." (QUEN., ib.) [7] BR. (503): "Explicit faith is that by which the thing to be believed, although it be not clearly known, or although all the things in it that are congnizable be not intelligibly apprehended, yet is in itself known distinctly, or in such a manner that it can be distinguished from other objects. With this is contrasted an im- plicit knowledge by which any one, e.g., is said to believe that Christ is the Redeemer, when he believes that those things are true which the Church believes, although he has no knowledge what- ever as to what those things are which the Church believes." [8] HOLL. (1178): "By general assent, the universal promises of the grace of God and the merit of Christ are regarded as true. By special assent, the converted, regenerate sinner regards these general promises as pertaining to him individually. In 1 Tim. 1: 15, the general and special assent of faith are united. By the gen- eral assent it is admitted as true that Christ Jesus came into the world to save all sinners. From this universal proposition the apostle descends to himself in particular, and believes that he has on Christ's account obtained the mercy of God to salvation. From this it appears that Christ's merit is universal, and the promises concerning the gratuitous remission of sins to be obtained through Christ are indeterminate. But that they may become actually profitable to one or another individual, it is necessary that the universal merit of Christ, and the indeterminate promises, should be applied and determined by special assent to this or that penitent sinner." [9] QUEN. (IV, 284, from CHMN., ex.): "It may be proved that confidence is the principal part of faith. (1) From etymology. Faith and confidence (fides and fiducia, pistis and pepoithesis) have one and the same origin; both come from a Greek word (peitho), which means I persuade, I convince, cf. John 2:24." ("From a com- parison of passages in the Old and New Testaments, what in the Old Testament is attributed to those exercising trust, and to confi- dence, in the New Testament is applied to those believing, and to --------------------End of Page 415------------------------------------- faith." HOLL. (1182).) (2) From synonymics. Faith, Heb. 11: 1, is called substance (hupostasis), which denotes a confidence of the heart subsisting firmly and immovably. (Comp. Ps. 39:4; 2 Cor. 9:4; 11:17; Heb. 3:14.) Faith is also called confidence (pepoithesis), 2 Cor. 3:4; Eph. 3:12; a sure and immovable per- suasion (plerophoria), Rom. 4:20, 21; Col. 2:2; Heb. 10:22; bold- ness (parresia), Eph. 3:12; 1 John 3:21; 4:17. (3) From ex- planatory declarations. Faith is represented by the reception of Christ, John 1:12; by the apprehension of the merit of Christ, Rom. 3:30; by confidence, 1 John 5:13; Matt. 9:22; 15:28; 1 John 5:4. (4) From explicit declarations, in which faith must be regarded as confidence, as in Matt. 9:22; 15:28; 1 John 5:4. (5) From what are represented as its opposites. To faith is opposed hesitation, Rom. 4:20; James 1:6; Luke 8:50; Mark 5:34; Matt. 8:26; 14:31. (6) From reason. For that by which justifying faith is constituted and distinguished from other species of faith, is its essential element. But, by the confidential reception of Christ and His merit, justifying faith is constituted, John 1:12; Rom. 3: 25, and is distinguished from an historical faith, James 2:19, and a miraculous faith, which regards another kind of promise, Mark 16:16. Therefore, "etc. [CHEMNITZ, Examen (Preuss' ed. I:192), much fuller: "1. From the nature and property of a gratuitous promise. For my confidence in my salvation does not depend upon the fact that the perspicacity of my understanding, by its acuteness, can penetrate the heaven of heavens, and scrutinize what is decreed concerning me in the secret counsel of the Trinity, but that God coming forth from His secret light, has revealed His will to us in His Word, as Paul, in 2 Cor. 2:16, does not hesitate to affirm that `we have the mind of Christ.' If eternal life were to be appre- hended by doubt, no promise would be more fitting than that of the Law, for because of the condition of perfect fulfilment attached, it leaves consciences in perpetual doubt. But since it is not doubt, but faith which justifies, and not he who doubts, but he who be- lieves, has eternal life; God has set forth the gratuitous promise of the Gospel, which depends not on our works, but on the mercy of God, because of the obedience of His Son, our Mediator. Why this promise was set forth, Paul shows: `To the end that the prom- ise might be sure,' Rom. 4:16. But does he mean that it should be sure only in general, and of itself? In no wise, but, as he says, that it might be sure to all the seed. But how? It was written, he says, to us, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe, v.24. For the promise of the Law is in general, and of itself, sure. But in order ---------------------End of Page 416----------------------------------- that it might be sure to us, it is according to grace, and of faith. So in Heb. 6, we have that most comforting declaration, that God added an oath to His gratuitous promise, `that by two immutable things,' etc., `that we who have fled for refuge might have a strong consolations.' From such foundation, John derives his argument, 1 John 5:10; and that by this he does not mean mere general assent is clear from v.13; `That ye may know that ye have,' etc. For if I believe in the Son of God, and yet doubt whether I have eternal life, I do not believe the promise: `He that believeth in the Son of God hath everlasting life.' "2. From the peculiar office of Justifying Faith. John had a special purpose in saying of faith (1 John 3:14). `We know that we have passed,' etc. (5:13): `That ye may know that ye have.' In Heb. 6, there occurs the most beautiful metaphor of the anchor. For when an anchor falls upon treacherous ground, it cannot hold the ship securely; but when upon a firm foundation, it holds it against all waves. So, he says, the anchor of our hope has been cast into heaven itself, where Christ our High Priest is, who grasps, holds and supports it, as he says in John 10:28; Phil. 3:13.... A most firm argument also against doubt is that of 2 Cor. 13:5. Notice that every one is to prove himself whether he be in the faith, and that they who do not acknowledge that Christ is in them, are reprobates. "3. The doctrine concerning the use of the Sacraments furnishes the most consoling arguments concerning the certainty of the sal- vation of believers. For it is certain that the Son of God has added, by His own institution, to His promise of grace, the seals which are called sacraments; viz., that the promise of the Gospel be presented not only in general, but that, in the sacramental action, the general promise is offered, applied, and sealed to every one using it in faith; and that too, so that the weakness of faith which can feebly sustain itself by a general and naked promise, may be sustained and comforted by the efficacy of the Sacraments. Thus, Rom. 4, circumcision is called a seal of the righteousness of faith. Gal. 3:27: `As many of you as have been baptized into Christ,' etc. 1 Pet. 3:21: `Baptism is the answer of a good con- science,' etc. In the use of the Lord's Supper, the Son of God applies: `Take, eat,' etc. Of absolution, how precious the prom- ise: `Whosoever sins," etc. Christ says, Luke 7:30: `Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace,' Matt. 9:2. "4. From the testimonies of Scripture concerning the sealing of believers by the Holy Ghost, Eph. 1:13; 2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 4:30. For sealing is without controversy applied to those objects which --------------------End of Page 417------------------------------ we want to be held without doubt by those to whom they belong. ...Nor is the sealing only a general persuasion, but that each one may determine that the promise is firm and certain unto him- self, and that, too, in opposition to the doubt which naturally inheres in our minds." Another term is arrhabo, a word of Hebrew origin, signifying a pledge whereby suretyship is ratified and confirmed, not certainly that there may be doubt concerning it, but that faith in it may be undoubted.... For, since we are saved, but as yet only by hope, Rom. 8, and meantime faith is agitated by various temptations; in order, therefore, that we may not doubt concerning God's good will towards us, the forgiveness of sins, adoption, salvation, and eternal life, He has given us as a pledge, not an angel, nor any creature, but the Holy Spirit Himself, con-substantial with Father and Son, so that, against every doubt, we may rest in the confi- dence of that salvation which shall be revealed in us. These met- aphors are explained elsewhere in manifest declarations, 1 John 5: 10; Rom. 8:16; Gal. 4:6; 1 Cor. 2:12; Eph. 1:18. "5. From the examples of the saints: Abraham, Rom. 4:20; David, Ps. 23:4; 27:1; 31:1; Paul, Rom. 8:33 sqq. "6. Doubt, conflicting with confidence, is reproved in Scripture, in explicit terms, Matt. 6:30; 14:31; Luke 12:29; James 1:6. In Rom. 14: `Whatsoever is not of faith,' and `Whatever is of a doubtful conscience,' are synonyms."] [10] Faith can therefore equally well be defined as "Confidence in mercy for Christ's sake, or assent to the promise of grace through Christ, or apprehension of Christ or of His merit, or the confident and individual application of the doctrines of salvation, rightly learned from the Word of God, and approved with a firm consent, made in order to obtain forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation through and on account of Christ's merit." (Cf. note 1.) HOLL. (1163): "Faith in Christ is the gift of the Holy Spirit, by which the converted and regenerated sinner savingly recognizes, with firm assent approves, and with unwavering confidence applies to himself, the Gospel promise of the grace of God and of the for- giveness of sins and eternal salvation, to be obtained through the atonement and merit of Christ, so that he may be justified and eternally saved." The object of special faith is, accordingly, HOLL. (1166), "Christ the Mediator, so far as He is offered to us in the promise of the Gospel as the meritorious cause of the grace of God and of the remission of sins (1 John 2:2; Rom. 3:25; Acts 16:31); or, what is the same thing, the grace of God, on account of the satisfaction -------------------End of Page 418---------------------------------- of Christ, remitting sin, and promised in the Gospel (Rom. 3:24); or, what is of similar import, the Gospel promise concerning the grace of God, and the remission of sins to be obtained through the satisfaction of Christ (Rom. 4:16; Gal. 3:22; 1 Tim. 1:15)." HOLL. (1167) remarks further: "The object of confidence is the same in substance, whether you represent it as Christ the Mediator, or as grace bestowed on account of Christ the Mediator. The dif- ference lies only in the mode of conception and expression." [11] Special faith distinguished from general. HOLL. (1164): "General faith is that by which man, who needs salvation, be- lieves all things to be true which are revealed in the Word of God. Of this species of faith we are not now speaking, because we are treating of faith as the means of salvation, and therefore in refer- ence to a special or peculiar object, which has the power of recov- ering salvation lost by sin, and in consideration of which, faith may be considered among the means of salvation. Special faith is therefore that by which the sinner, converted and regenerated, applies to himself individually the universal promises in reference to Christ, the Mediator, and the grace of God accessible through Him, and believes that God desires to be propitious to him and to pardon his sins, on account of the satisfaction of Christ, made for his and all men's sins. It is therefore called special faith, not be- cause it has any special promise as its object, which is made specially to the believer, but on account of the application by which, under the universal promise of the grace of God and the merit of Christ, it reaches him individually. AP. CONF. II, 44: "This special faith, therefore, by which an individual believes that for Christ's sake, his sins are remitted him, and that for Christ's sake, God is reconciled and propitious, obtains remission of sins and justifies us." On the relation of general and special faith, CHMN. (Loc. c. Th., II, 268): "Justifying faith (special) presupposes and includes general faith, which, with a firm per- suasion, determines that those things are most certainly true which are disclosed in the Word of God. For when this general founda- tion totters, then a firm confidence in the evangelical promise can- not be conceived, nor can it be retained in time of trouble. Justifying faith has thus many properties in common with gen- eral." Against the objections of Catholicism, he says: "The Papists constantly traduce our doctrine, as if we invented a partial faith which is not Catholic, because it may be detached from the other articles of belief and the entire Word of God, and restricted to the single item of Christ, the Mediator; as if the assent to other parts of the Word of God were not necessary, but arbitrary. To -----------------End of Page 419-------------------------------------- refute this calumny, therefore, at the very beginning of the defini- tion, the declaration is made, that we do not exclude the other parts of the heavenly doctrine when we say that the promise of grace is the proper object of justifying faith. But as the sum, end, scope, and goal of the entire Scriptures is Christ in His medi- atorial office, so faith, when it assents to the entire Word of God, regards the scope of the entire Scriptures, and refers all the other articles to the promise of grace." [12] FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., III, 38): "It is faith alone, and nothing else whatever, which is the means and instrument by which the grace of God and the merit of Christ in the promise of the Gospel are embraced, received, and applied to us." HOLL. (1173): "For justifying faith is the receptive organ and, as it were, the hand of the poor sinner, by which he applies and takes to himself, lays hold of, and possesses those things which are proffered in the free promise of the Gospel. God, the supreme Monarch, extends from heaven the hand of grace, obtained by the merit of Christ, and in it offers salvation. The sinner, in the abyss of misery, receives, as a beggar, in his hand of faith, what is thus offered to him. The offer and the reception are correlatives. Therefore the hand of faith, which seizes and appropriates the offered treasure, corresponds to the hand of grace which offers the treasure of righteousness and salvation." [13] FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., III, 10): "Faith is the gift of God, by which we apprehend aright Christ, our Redeemer, in the Gospel." GRH. (VII, 162): "We are so corrupted and depraved by sin, that we not only need redemption, the pardon of sins, the gift of salvation and eternal life, but that we also cannot of our- selves and from our own power produce even faith through which to become partakers of divine grace and heavenly blessings. God, therefore, pitying us, acted as a faithful physician, who not only carries medicine to the patient to cure him, but in addition, if there be occasion, and the invalid cannot do it, attends to the adminstration of it himself." QUEN. (IV, 281): "God is the principal efficient cause of sav- ing faith. John 6:29; Phil. 1:29. Hence faith is called the gift of God, Eph. 2:8, and it is said to be of the operation of God, Col. 2:12. This shows that faith proceeds from God, who regen- erates, and is not the product of our own will; it is not meritorious. It has its origin in grace, not in nature; it is adventitious, not hereditary; supernatural, not natural. That which, in respect to its commencement, its increase, and its completion, is from God, cannot depend upon our will and powers of nature. But faith -------------------End of Page 420--------------------------------- is of God in its commencement, Phil. 2:13; 1:6; in its increase, Mark 9:24; Luke 17:5; and in its completion, Phil. 1:6; 2 Thess. 1:11. Therefore, etc." Br. (721): "The moving internal cause is the goodness of God, or His mercy and gratuitous favor (Phil. 1:29); the external is the merit of Christ." [14] AP. CONF., II, 73: "We do not exclude the Word or the Sacraments. We have said above that faith is conceived from the Word, and we honor the ministry of the Word in the highest degree." GRH. (VII, 163): "He does not wish to produce faith in the hearts of men immediately, or by enthusiastic raptures of the Holy Spirit, but mediately by the preaching, hearing, and reading of the Word, and meditation upon it. Therefore the instrumental cause of faith is the preaching of the Word. The Holy Spirit not only offers in the Gospel the vast benefits procured by the passion and death of Christ; but operates also through the Word upon the hearts of men, and kindles in them faith by which they embrace and apply to themselves the proffered mercies." The difference in regard to the order in which the Word and Sacraments influ- ence adults and children is thus laid down by QUEN. (IV, 282): "The conferring means in adults are, first, the Word preached, heard, read, and devoutly considered. John 17:20; Rom. 10:17; 1 Cor. 1:21; 2 Cor. 4:6; and afterwards the Sacraments. In infants, however, Baptism is first as a source generating faith." Agreeably to this, HOLL. (1186) distinguishes "faith (which essentially and absolutely considered is one), in relation to the mode of knowledge, as direct, which directly leads to Christ and the grace of God afforded in Him (for example, infants believe, but they cannot yet prove their faith [explorare fidem suam] for want of ripened judgment), and as reflex and discursive, by which a man regenerated believes and perceives that he believes, so that he can say with Paul, 2 Tim. 1:12: `I know whom I have believed.'" [15] AP. CONF. (II, 45): "Because faith comforts and lifts up the heart in repentance, i.e., in its distresses, renews us, and brings the Holy Spirit, enabling us to obey the Law of God." Ib. (64): "But when we say of such faith, that it is not mere idle thinking but that it delivers us from death and begets new life in our hearts, and is a work of the Holy Spirit, it does not co-exist with mortal sin, but produces good fruits only so long as it is really present." FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., IV, 10): "As Luther writes in the introduction to St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans: `Faith is a divine work in us which changes us, divinely regenerates, mortifies -----------------End of Page 421---------------------------------------- the old Adam, makes of us altogether different men (in heart, soul, and in all our powers), and confers the Holy Spirit upon us. Oh, it is a living, efficacious, energetic power that we have in faith, so that it cannot exist without always producing good works! It does not inquire whether good works are to be performed, but, before any such inquiry, has already performed many, and is always busy in the performance of them." BR. (518): "Confi- dence is always attended with love. For, when our will has respect to Christ as a present good, and to God as appeased for Christ's sake and rendered propitious to us, it renders to Him a love not only of complacency, but likewise of benevolence; its im- pulses are good will to Him, a desire to perform what will be good and grateful to Him." [16] HOLL. (1163): "A false, or vain and dead, faith is equiv- ocally called faith, as it is only an empty persuasion and boasting of faith, or a bold presumption upon the mercy and grace of God on account of the merit of Christ, in an impenitent man, indulging himself in sin. Concerning this, see James 2:20. We speak of true and living faith, which receives its vitality from Christ, and when it justifies the converted sinner exerts and displays its vital energy in love and good works." AP. CONF. (III, 128): "(James says) that (faith) is dead which does not produce good works; living, that which does produce them. (III, 21 and 22.) The faith of which we speak exists in repentance, that is, it is con- ceived amid the terrors of conscience, which perceives the wrath of God against our sins and seeks their remission and to be liberated from sin. Faith ought to increase and be confirmed amid such terrors and other distresses. It can not therefore exist in those who live after the flesh, who delight in carnal lusts and obey them." [17] AP. CONF. (II, 56): "Faith does not justify or save be- cause it is a meritorious work, but only because it accepts the proffered mercy." Ibid. (74): "Love, also, and good works ought to follow faith; wherefore, they are not so excluded that they should not follow it, but confidence in the meritoriousness of love or works is excluded in justification." FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., III, 41): "That which Luther has well said remains true, `Faith and works agree well and are inseparably connected, but it is faith alone which receives the blessing without works, and yet it is never alone.'" 42. "In regard to the question, how faith justifies, this is Paul's doctrine on this point, that faith alone without works justifies, inasmuch as it applies and communicates to us the merit of Christ. But when it is asked how and by what indication a Christian man can recognize and distinguish either in ----------------------End of Page 422------------------------------ himself or in other men a true and living faith, and likewise a feigned and dead faith, since, in place of faith, many torpid and secure Christians indulge in a vain opinion without having true faith, the APOL. answers: `James calls that a dead faith which is not followed by good works of every description and the fruits of the Spirit.'" The distinction of HOLL. (1172) is very striking: "The power and energy of faith are twofold, receptive, or appre- hensive, and operative. The former is that by which faith pas- sively receives Christ and everything obtained by His merit (John 1:12; 17:8; Col. 2:6; 1 Tim. 1:15; Rom. 5:17; Acts 10:43; James 1:12; Gal. 3:14). The latter is that by which faith manifests itself actively by works of love and practice of other virtues. Gal. 5:6. Note: `The epithet, working by love (in Gal. 5:6), is an attribute of a faith which has justified, not of one which will in the future justify, much less the form or essence of justifying faith so far as it justifies. For the Apostle does not de- scribe the office of justifying faith, so far as it justifies, but another office, to wit, its operation by love;" and the passage from Brentz (Apology of Wuert. Conf.): "Faith, so to speak, has two hands. One, which it extends upwards to embrace Christ with all His bene- fits, and by this we are justified; the other, which it reaches down- wards to perform the works of love and of the other virtues, and by this we prove the reality of faith, but are not thereby justified." QUEN. (IV, 281) thus combines the various statements in re- gard to faith; "If you inquire after the origin of justifying faith, it is heaven-derived; if in regard to the means by which it is proffered, it is begotten by the Word of God and the Sacraments; if in regard to the effects, it attains the pardon of sins; if in regard to the con- sequences, they are shown through the holy works of love; if in re- gard to the reward, it is recompensed in eternal salvation; if in regard to the relation to virtues, it is the root and foundation of the rest." [18] HOLL. (1187): "Certainty belongs to faith in Christ, (a) on the part of the object believed, in which there can be no false- hood. For the Word of God, which is received by the assent of faith, is most true, on account of the authority of God who reveals it; (b) on the part of the subject, or of him who believes, and who most firmly adheres to and depends upon the divine prom- ises. For faith is the evidence of things not seen, Heb. 11:1; a firm assent and a full confidence, Rom. 4:21; Col. 2:2; Heb. 6: 11; a firm persuasion, Eph. 3:12; 1 Cor. 6:17." Id. (1188): "Converted and regenerated men can and do know with an in- fallible certainty that they truly believe, both from the summarturia, -------------End of Page 423----------------------------------------- or the concurring testimony of the Holy Ghost with the testimony of their own spirit, or of their soul enlightened and renewed (Rom. 8:16; 1 John 5:9), and likewise from the examination and proof of faith (2 Cor. 13:5)." [19] HOLL. (1186): "Faith is weak or infirm, when either a feeble light of the knowledge of Christ glimmers in the intellect, or the promise of grace is received with a languid and weak assent, or confidence struggles with an alarmed conscience. So Mark 9: 24. But yet a weak faith may be true; as a spark concealed under the ashes is true fire, and a tender infant is a true human being. A strong or firm faith is a clear knowledge of the divine mercy, offered in Christ, a solid assent, an intrepid confidence overcoming all terrors. Comp. Rom. 4:18." CHMN. (Loc. c. Th., II, 270): "The essentials should be marked. For we are justified by faith not because it is a virtue so firm, robust, and perfect; but on account of the object, because faith apprehends Christ. When then faith does not err in its object, but appre- hends that true object, although with a languid faith, or at least endeavors and desires to apprehend it, it is genuine and justifies." PARA. 42. (2) Justification. The effect of faith is justification; [1] by which is to be understood that act of God by which He removes the sentence of condemnation, to which man is exposed in consequence of his sins, releases him from his guilt, and ascribes to him the merit of Christ. BR. (574): "Justification denotes that act by which the sinner, who is responsible for guilt and liable to punishment (reus culpae et poenae), but who believes in Christ, is pronounced just by God the judge." [2] This act occurs at the instant in which the merit of Christ is appropriated by faith, [3] and can properly be designated a forensic or judicial act, since God in it, as if in a civil court, pronounces a judg- ment upon man, which assigns to him an entirely different postion, and entirely different rights. [4] By justification we are, therefore, by no means to understand a moral condition existing in man, or a moral change which he has experienced, but only a judgment pronounced upon man, by which his re- lation to God is reversed, [5] and indeed in such a manner, that a man can now consider himself one whose sins are blotted out, who is no longer responsible for them before God, who, on the other hand, appears before God as accepted and -----------------End of Page 424------------------------------ righteous, in whom God finds nothing more to punish, with whom He has no longer any occasion to be displeased. Through this act of justification emanating from God we receive, 1. REMISSION OF SINS (Rom. 4:7; Ps. 32:1, 2; Rom. 3:25; Luke 11:4; 2 Cor. 5:19). 2. THE IMPUTATION OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST[6] (Rom. 5:9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:6; Phil. 3:9; Rom. 4:5); for God, from the moment in which faith is exercised, regards all that Christ has accomplished, as if it had been done by man, and attributes the merit of Christ to him, as if it were his own. [7] From this can be seen what we are to designate as the ground of our justification, and what is the means by which it is attained. The ground lies alone in the merit of Christ, for by this our sins are blotted out, and God is enabled to receive us again into favor. [8] The means, however, through which we attain justification is faith. [9] In no wise, therefore, is any merit or worthiness on our part de- manded as the condition for the impartation of justification, as if upon that our justification should depend. It is not denied, indeed, that a moral change takes place in man, with the entrance of faith, and therefore also with that of justifica- tion; yet this is to be regarded as only an attendant to justi- fication and contemporaneous with it, but in no wise as the condition upon which we attain justification; [10] and this the less, as it is only the grace of God which displays itself in justification, that furnishes the ground and possibility of such a change. [11] The moral worthiness of man cannot be made account of in the inquiry concerning the reasons of his being received into the favor of God, [12] and it is highly important to assert this firmly, as we would deprive ourselves of the firm footing on which our justification rests, if we re- garded it as in any degree dependent upon anything done by us. [13] Justification is, accordingly, to be regarrded through- out as a free gift of grace on the part of God, which is offered to us gratuitously and without requiring any addition to it on our part, and which can be received and accepted only by faith, as it is expressed in the declaration that we are justified, gratuitously, by faith alone, [14] and for Christ's sake. [15] ----------------End of Page 425----------------------------------- This doctrine, according to which, in the act of justification, all man's works are excluded and the whole is considered as effected by God's grace, constitutes the central point of the knowledge which we owe to the Reformation; [16] in it there is offered man a sure and firm foundation upon which he may build his hopes of salvation, and a sure way pointed out to him of obtaining it. [17] [1] QUEN. (IV, 286): "The immediate effect of faith is the re- mission of sins, adoption, justification, union with Christ, access to God, and peace of conscience. Among these effects of faith, justifi- cation is the principal, to which all the rest can be referred." [2] QUEN. (III, 526): "Justification is the external, judicial, gracious act of the most Holy Trinity, by which a sinful man, whose sins are forgiven, on account of the merit of Christ appre- hended by faith, is accounted just, to the praise of God's glorious grace and justice and to the salvation of the justified." [3] BR. (574): "For with and through faith man is at once justified; so that the act by which faith is conferred upon man, and the act by which man is justified, are simultaneous, although faith is by nature first in order and justification subsequent to it." [4] BR. (574): "Justification has a forensic sense, and denotes that act by which God, the judge, pronounces righteous the sinner responsible for guilt and liable to punishment, but who believes in Jesus." CHMN. (Loc. c. Th., II, 250): "Paul everywhere describes jus- tification as a judicial process, because the conscience of the sinner accused by the divine Law before the tribunal of God, convicted and lying under the sentence of eternal condemnation, but fleeing to the throne of grace, is restored, acquitted, delivered from the sentence of condemnation, is received into eternal life, on account of the obedience and intercession of the Son of God, the Mediator, which is apprehended and applied by faith." According to this, justification signifies to pronounce righteous. FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., III, 17): "The word justification signifies in this matter to pronounce righteous, to absolve from sins and the eternal punish- ment of sins on account of Christ's righteousness, which is imputed to faith by God." BR. (575): "Although the Latin word justifi- care is compounded of the adjective justus and the verb facere, it does not denote in general usage, and especially in the Scriptures when sinful man is said to be justifed before God, the infusion of an habitual righteousness, but, according to the import of the Hebrew word XXXXX (2 Sam. 15:4; Deut. 25:1), and the word ---------------End of Page 426--------------------------------------- dikaioun in the Septuagint and Paul (Rom. 3 and 4), the Latin jus- tificare is also transferred from an outward to a spiritual court, at which men are placed as before a divine tribunal, and are acquitted after the case has been heard and sentence has been pronounced." According to the Catholic doctrine, "justify" is equivalent in im- port to making righteous; making a righteous person out of a wicked one. In opposition to this, AP. CONF. (III, 131): "Jus- tification signifies not to make a wicked person righteous, but in a forensic sense to pronounce righteous." QUEN. (III, 515): "These words dikaioun and XXXX, nowhere and never in the whole Scrip- tures, even when not used in reference to the justification of the sinner before God, signify justification by the infusion of new qualities; but whenever they are used of God justifying the wicked before His tribunal they have a forensic signification." GRH. (VII, 4 sq.) thus gives the Scripture proof in detail: "The forensic signification (of the word dikaioun) is proved, (1) because it denotes a judicial act, not only without reference to the doctrine of gratui- tous justification before God (Is. 5:23; Deut. 25:1; 2 Sam. 15:4; Ps. 82:3; Is. 43:9), but also in the very article of justification (Ps. 143:2; Job 9:2, 3; Luke 18:14); (2) because it is opposed to condemnation (Deut. 25:1; 1 Kings 8:32; Prov. 17:15; Matt. 12: 37; Rom. 5:16; 8:33, 34); (3) because its correlatives are judicial. For a judgment is mentioned, Ps. 143:2; a judge, John 5:27; a tribunal, Rom. 14:10; a criminal, Rom. 3:19; a plaintiff, John 5:45; a witness, Rom. 2:15; an indictment, Col. 2:14; an obli- gation, Matt. 18:24; an advocate, 1 John 2:1; an acquittal, Ps. 32:1. The Law accuses the sinner before the judgment-seat of God, that he may be subject to the judgment of God. Rom. 3:19. Conscience concurs with this accusation of the Law, Rom. 2:15. Since, in consequence of sin, the whole nature of man and all his works are miserably contaminated, he discovers nothing to oppose to the judgment of God; the Law therefore hurls the thunder of its curse and condemnation upon man convicted of sin, but the Gospel presnets Christ the Mediator, who by His most perfect obedience has atoned for our sins. To Him the sinner, terrified and con- demned by the Law, flees by true faith, opposes this righteousness of Christ to the sentence of God and the condemnation of the Law, and in view of, and by the imputation of this, he is justified, that is, freed from the sentence of condemnation and pronounced right- eous; (4) because the equivalent phrases are judicial. To be justified is to be not called into judgment, Ps. 143:2; to be not condemned, John 3:18; not to come into condemnation, John 5:24; not to be judged, John 3:18. The publican went down to his house justi- --------------End of Page 427------------------------------------ fied, that is, acquitted of his sins, Luke 18:14. Paul explains justification by `imputing for righteousness,' Rom. 4:3, 5; by `covering iniquities'; by `not imputing sin,' 5:7; by `remitting sins,' Rom. 3:25; by `forgiving trespasses,' Col. 2:13. Here be- long the phrases: `to be reconciled to God,' Rom. 5:10; `to be made righteous,' 5:19; `to partake of the blessing,' Eph. 1:3; `to receive remission of sins,' Acts 10:43; `to be saved,' Acts 4:12. Comp. the parable, Matt. 18:27." [5] BR. (577): "Justification does not mean a real and internal change of man." HOLL. (928): "Justification is a judicial, and that, too, a gracious act, by which God, reconciled by the satisfac- tion of Christ, acquits the sinner who believes in Christ of the offenses with which he is charged, and accounts and pronounces him righteous. Since this action takes place apart from man, in God, it cannot intrinsically change man. For, as a debtor for whom an- other pays his debt, so that he is considered released from the debt, undergoes not an intrinsic but an extrinsic change in regard to his condition, so the sinner who is reputed and pronounced free from his sins, on account of the satisfaction of Christ applied by true faith, is changed, not intrinsically, but extrinsically, with respect to his better condition. The point from which this external change takes place (terminus a quo) is the state of being responsible for guilt and liable to punishment; because thereby the sinner remains in a state of sin and wrath (Rom. 4:7; Eph. 1:7; 2 Cor. 5:19). The point to which it conducts (teminus ad quem) is the state of grace and righteousness; because God, remitting the offenses of the sinner who believes in Christ, receives him into favor, and imputes to him the righteousness of Christ (Rom. 4:5, 6; Gal. 3:6; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9; Rom. 5:19)." To the last, BR. (579) remarks in addition: "Some refer to this place the privileges of the sons of God, and the inheritance of eternal life, which is conferred or ad- judged to us in God's account. Some add the dignity of the reward of righteousness which we obtain in this act of justification. But others, and probably the majority, distinguish the act by which the sonship, or the inheritance, or the privilege of reward is con- ferred on the faithful from justification, and consider them as its consequences.... The Scriptures also frequently distinguish be- tween these two things, viz., freedom from the condemnation of sin, with power to become the sons of God, and the heavenly in- heritance, of which the latter implies the former, and is furnished to the justified by a subsequent and new gift, viz., that when the judgment is finished, the sonship or adoption referred to in Rom. 8:15, 23; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5 will take place." --------------End of Page 428-------------------------------------- [6] QUEN. (III, 524): "Our justification before God consists in the remission and non-imputation of sins and the imputation of righteous- ness of Christ." The FORM. CONC. sometimes presents both these expressions conjointly, and sometimes it describes the sentence of justification as having reference only to the remission of sins. It says (Epit., III, 4): "We believe that our righteousness before God consists in this, that the Lord forgives us our sins through mere grace.... For He gives and imputes to us the righteousness of the obedience of Christ; on account of this righteousness we are received into favor by God, and are accounted just." And it says (Sol. Dec., III, 9): "Concerning the righteousness of faith, we confess that the sinner is justified before God, i.e., is absolved from all his sins and from the sentence of most righteous condemnation, and adopted into the number of the children of God and regarded as an heir of eternal life."... The same course is adopted by other Dogmaticians. No difference is thereby intended in the matter itself. BR. mentions, as the form of justification, only the forgive- ness of sins, because he presupposes the imputation of the right- eousness of Christ as that upon which the forgiveness if based. He says (588): "It is certain that, when we call the form of justifica- tion the forgiveness or non-imputation of sins, the imputation of the righteousness of Christ is not excluded,... nor the imputa- tion of this faith itself for righteousness. That is, we mean to say, that the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, and of faith itself, is only logically prior to that forensic act of justification by which men are absolved from the guilt of sins; for to the question, Why does God justify man? the apriori explanation is given, Because God imputes to man the righteousness or merit of Christ appre- hended by faith, or so judges it to belong to man that he is on this account absolved from the guilt of his sins." Other Dogmaticians express themselves differently in regard to the relation existing between the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of the righteous- ness of Christ. QUEN. (ib.): "These parts (so to speak) are not different or distinct essentially (to einai), but merely logically (to logo); for the imputation of Christ's righteousness is essentially nothing else than the remission of sins, and the remission of sins is nothing else than the imputation of Christ's righteousness, so that either word sepa- rately taken expresses the whole nature of justification. Whence the apostle Paul, Rom. 4, interchanges the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of righteousness in his description of justification, which he sometimes defines as the forgiveness of sins, and sometimes as the imputation of righteousness. For, as it can properly be said ----------End of Page 429-------------------------------------------- that at one and the same time, and by one and the same action, the expulsion of darkness from the atmosphere is the introduction of light, so one and the same wicked man, at one and the same time, and by the very same act of justification, is both freed from guilt and pronounced righteous." HOLL. (915): "Remission of sins and the imputation of Christ's righteousness are inseparable and closely-united acts; but distinct, indeed, in form, as the first is privative, and the other positive, and as the one results immedi- ately from the passive obedience of Christ, the other from His active obedience. We do not deny, meanwhile, that the one may prop- erly be inferred from the other, for there is no sinner, whose sins are pardoned, but has the righteousness of Christ imputed, and the reverse." In earlier times, indeed, the definition of renovation or regenera- tion was also included in that of justification. Thus MEL. says (Loc. Com. Th., II, 207, sq.): "The first (degree) of evangelical liberty is the forgiveness of sins, reconciliation, justification, or the imputation of righteousness and acceptance to eternal life, and the inheritance of eternal life, are bestowed upon us freely on ac- count of the Son of God.... The second degree is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who enkindles new light in the mind and new emo- tions in the will and heart, governs us, and begins in us eternal life." And the AP. CONF., II, 72: "Because to be justified signi- fies that the wicked are made righteous through regeneration, it signifies also that they are pronounced or reputed as righteous. For the Scripture uses both these methods of speaking." Ib., III, 40: "Although it is generally admitted that justification signifies not only the beginning of renovation, but the reconciliation by which we are afterwards accepted." When, afterwards, these phrases were taken separately, and in the definition of justification only the forgiveness of sin and the imputation of Christ's righteouss- ness were included, no change of doctrine was thereby introduced. MEL. and the AP. meant thereby only to say that as faith, by which one apprehends the merit of Christ, is wrought by the Holy Spirit, regeneration in its beginnings is at the same time implied in it. AP. II, 45: "This special faith, by which any one believes that his sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, and that God is reconciled and rendered propitious for Christ's sake, attains the forgiveness of sins and justifies us. And because in penitence i.e., in our spirit- ual distress, He comforts us and encourages our hearts, regenerates us and bestows the Holy Spirit, so that then we can obey the divine Law." To this statement the later theologians also adhered. See Note 10. They were influenced, however, by the controversies that --------------End of Page 430--------------------------------------- afterwards arose with the Roman Catholics, and also already with some Lutheran theologians (A. Osiander), in the definition of justification, to guard against the appearance of admitting that the renovation thus introduced in its beginnings along with the forgive- ness of sins was in any sense a condition of the bestowal of the forgiveness of sins. And with this the APOL. entirely accords. [7] QUEN. (III, 525): "The form of imputation consists in the gracious reckoning of God, by which the penitent sinner, on ac- count of the most perfect obedience of another, i.e., of Christ, apprehended by faith according to Gospel mercy, is pronounced righteous before the divine tribunal, `just as if this obedience had been rendered by the man himself.'" AP. CONF. (III, 184): "To be justified here signifies, according to forensic usage, to absolve a guilty man and pronounce him just, but on account of the right- eousness of another, viz., of Christ, which righteousness of another is communicated to us by faith.... Because the righteousness of Christ, is given to us through faith, faith is righteousness in us imputatively, i.e., it is that by which we are caused to be accepted of God in consequence of the imputation and ordination of God." The expression: the righteousness of Christ, is explained as follows in the FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., III, 14): "The righteousness (of Christ), which is imputed before God out of pure grace to faith, or to believers, is the obdedience, passion, and resurrection of Christ, by which He satisfied the Law for our sake and atoned for our sins." Synonymous with the expression: "the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us," is that other: "the merit or obedience of Christ is imputed to us." And also this one: "faith is imputed to us for righteousness," Rom. 4:5, which is thus explained: "only in so far as it apprehends and applies to itself the righteousness of Christ." The righteousness of faith, then, "is nothing else than the forgiveness of sins, the gratuitous acceptance of the sinner solely on account of the obedience and most perfect merit of Christ alone." (Ib. 54.) CHMN. (Loc. Th., 274) vindicates the doctrine of imputation, against the Papists, as follows: "There is an imputation which is based upon and has reference to a foundation in the person work- ing, to whom the imputation is made, and this is done not as a matter of grace, but as a matter of debt. But there is another im- putation, which neither has nor refers to a foundation, in view of nor by reason of which the imputation is made, but is based upon the grace and mercy of God, who justifies the wicked. And in this, that he says by this imputation the wicked man is justified, he shows that the foundation is altogether different in the believer to whom this imputation is gratuitous; to whom, namely, not ---------------End of Page 431-------------------------------------- righteousness but guilt would be imputed, if God wished to enter into judgment. Paul, therefore, distinctly and clearly shows that he wishes this word, imputation, in the doctrine of justification, to be understood not in the former, but in the latter sense. And the same thing he also shows more fully and proves from David, who describes the blessednesss of the man to whom God imputes right- eousness without works. Therefore the foundation of this imputa- tion, concerning which Paul speaks, is not in him to whom the imputation is made, for he says, `without works.' And in Eph. 2:8 he more expressly says: `not of yourselves.' But he adds, that sins in this imputation are forgiven, that iniquities are cov- ered, that crimes are not imputed. There is, thus, in those who believe, to whom this gratuitous imputation is made, an altogether different foundation, if God should wish to enter into judgment with them. The imputation of righteousness consists, therefore, in the grace and mercy of God, which, for the sake of Christ, cover up the inherent foundation, viz., sin, so that it may not be imputed, and impute to the believer, through grace, the foundation which is not in him, just as if the righteousness were inherent in that per- fection which he owes. These three things, therefore, we now infer from the true premises which belong to the word imputation in this article: 1. There is no basis in believers, in view and by reason of which righteousness is imputed for happiness, not even in Abraham, although adorned by the Holy Spirit with distin- guished gifts of renewal. 2. A very different basis is discovered, if God wish to enter into judgment, viz., sin, which is to be cov- ered up, so as not to be imputed. 3. But that imputation is a re- ferring act (relatio) of the divine mind and will, which, through gratuitous mercy for Christ's sake, does not impute their sins to believers, but imputes to them righteousness, i.e., they are re- garded before God, in His judgment, as if they possessed perfect inherent righteousness, and thus salvation and eternal life are be- stowed upon them as if they were righteous. But what the fourth point is, which also belongs to imputation, and wherefore it is added, can be understood from what follows. When a judge, by his own referring act (relatio), imputes the sentence of righteous- ness to a guilty person without any foundation, this is an abom- ination (Prov. 17:15; Ex. 23:1; Deut. 25:1; Is. 5:23; 1 Chron. 8:32). Some may reply, God is a perfectly free agent, and as such can justify whom He will and as He will. But God has re- vealed His will in the Law, and this cannot be broken.... Therefore, in accordance with that revealed will, God does not wish to justify any one without righteousness, i.e., unless accord- --------------------End of Page 432---------------------------------- ing to the Law satisfaction has been made for sin, and the Law has been fulfilled by a perfect obedience. And Paul says, when faith is imputed for righteousness, the Law is not made void, but estab- lished; i.e., to use the scholastic terminology, the act of the divine mind imputes to the believer the sentence of righteousness for eter- nal life, not without a basis. But that basis is not in believers. But God has offered to us His Son as Mediator, made under the Law, to which He rendered satisfaction both by bearing our sins and by perfect obedience.... Thus we will obtain a perfect re- ferring act whose foundation is in obedience and redemption, in Christ Jesus our Lord. The referring act (relatio) is the grace and mercy of God; the object of it is the believer, to whom, on Christ's account, sins are not imputed, but who is through Christ accounted righteous before God unto eternal life, the righteousness of Christ being imputed to him."... "This exposition explains the whole doctrine and refutes many cavils.... The Jesuits say, a referring act (relatio) without a foundation is an empty phantasm and an illusion, as if Crassus, burdened with debt, were saluted as rich. Such, they say, is imputative righteousness, which has no foundation inherent in ourselves. But these cavils are abundantly refuted by what we have already said. For we do not teach that God, through any levity, imputes righteousness to believers without any foundation; but we affirm, from the Word of God, that there needs to be ever so firm a foundation of gratuitous imputation--that the righteous- ness inherent even in Abraham and David could not be the foundation of that referring act (relatio) and imputation, but there was need that the Son of God should become incarnate.... The righteousness of faith is, therefore, not of the least but of the greatest reality, for Christ is our righteousness; nor is it an empty phantasm, for it is the result of the divine thought and judgment." In regard to the meaning of the word justification, HOLL. further remarks (914): "Imputation, in the doctrine of justification, is not taken in a physical sense, so as to signify to insert, to implant, but in a moral, judicial, and declarative sense, so as to signify to adjudicate, to attribute, to ascribe, to transfer, confer, devolve upon another the effect of a voluntary act by one's own estimate and decision." The reality of imputation BR. shows as follows (581): "It is called imputation, not as an empty or imaginary transfer of the merit of one to another, destitute alike of a basis and fruit; but because it is an act of the intellect and will of him who exercises the judgment, by which he adjudges that the merit of one, which is offered for --------------End of Page 433---------------------------------------- another, and is apprehended by the faith of him for whose benefit it has been offered, can be legitimately accepted as if it were his own merit, and is willing to receive it in such manner as if he had of himself offered it, whatever it is. Paul himself uses this argu- ment in Rom. 4:3-6." QUEN. (III, 525): "This imputation is most real, whether respect is had to the righteousness which is imputed, or to the act of imputation. The righteousness of Christ, or His obedience, active and passive, which is imputed to us, is most true and real; for it corresponds entirely to the mind and will of God expresssed in the Law. The act of imputation, also, or the imputation itself, is real; because its measure is the infallible intellect of God. Whence God cannot repute or consider him just to whom true righteousness has not been appropriated; nor can there proceed from the divine will, the rule of all excellence, approbation of an imaginary or fictitious estimation or righteous- ness. They, therefore, to whom the righteousness of Christ is imputed, are truly righteous, though not inherently, or by inher- ence, but imputatively, and by an extrinsic designation at least they are such; for even from that which is external a true designa- tion may be derived. It is, therefore, an idle question, whether, on account of that imputation, we are really righteous, or are merely considered righteous. For the judgment of God is accord- ing to truth. Wherefore, he is truly just who, in the judgment of God, is regarded as just." [8] The Dogmaticians distinguish (QUEN., III, 517): "The impulsive internal cause of our justification, which is the purely gratuitous grace of God (Rom. 3:24; 11:6; Eph. 2:8, 9; 2 Tim. 1:9; Tit. 3:4-6)," and the "impulsive, external, and meritorious cause, which is Christ the Mediator, by virtue of His active and passive obedience (Rom. 3:24; 2 Cor. 5:21)," (BR., 583). "The impulsive external cause does not annul the gratuitous favor of God, in the matter of justification, nor is it excluded from it; since, rather, the fact is due to divine grace, that God sent His Son to make satisfaction for us, so that we could be justified, and that He accepts this merit belonging to another as if it were our own." Whence it appears in what sense it is said that the ground of justification is exterior to man. MEL. (Loc. c. Th., I, 179): "If they duly consider these (alarms, that accompany true peni- tence), they would know that thoroughly terrified minds seek consolation outside of themselves, and this consolation is the confi- dence with which the will acquiesces in the promise of mercy, granted for the sake of the Mediator." QUEN. (III, 525): "This imputation has a most firm foundation, not in man, who is justi- -----------End of Page 434------------------------------------------ fied, but without him, namely, in God Himself, who imputes, and in Christ the Mediator, who earned the imputation by rendering satisfaction." The contrary doctrine is that of the Roman Catholic Church, which, by justification, understands, "to make a righteous out of an unrighteous person." According to this doctrine, the ground of our salvation does not lie in the appropriation of the merit of Christ, but in our moral transformation. It is then said: "That, on account of which man is justified and constituted an heir of eternal life, is an infused habit of righteousness and love, or new- ness of life, or righteousness inherent in us, by which we observe the Law." (QUEN., III, 540.) When the Romanists use the phrase, "the righteousness of Christ," they employ it in a sense entirely different from that in which it is employed in the Luth- eran Church; for, while in the latter the righteousness of Christ is understood to mean that righteousness which Christ, by obedience towards the Father, has secured for us, the Romanists understand by the phrase the moral perfection of Christ Himself, the right- eousness inherent in Him. This, however, is carefully distin- guished, by the Lutheran Dogmaticians, as the essential, from the other, the habitual and meritorious righteousness. Even the Luth- eran divine, ANDRW OSIANDER, understood by the righteousness of Christ His essential righteousness, and thus confounded Justifi- cation and Santification, like the Romanists. He says in his CONF. ET DISP., A.D. 1549: "That the fulfilment of the Law, effected by Christ, and obedience and remission of sins, prepare for righteousness; but the righteousness by which we are accounted righteous before God, is the divine nature of Christ entering into us by faith, and abiding in us, or the essential and eternal righteous- ness of God, which, dwelling us us, enables us to act righteously." Hence the decision of the FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., III, 55): "As in our churches it is considered beyond controversy by the divines of the Augsburg Confession, that all our righteousness is to be sought outside of ourselves and apart from the merits and works, virtues and dignity of men, and that it exists alone in our Lord Jesus Christ, it is carefully to be considered in what way, in the matter of justification, Christ is said to be our righteousness. For our righteousness does not consist in His divine nature (Osiander), nor in His human nature (Stancarus), but in His entire person, for He, as God and man, in His entire and most perfect obedience, is our righteousness." [9] HOLL. (903): "The receptive means, or that on the part of the sinner which receives Christ's merit, and the grace of God founded upon it, is faith." Faith is thus, indeed, considered a cause, but ---------------------End of Page 435----------------------------------- an impulsive cause subordinate, or an instrumental cause, organic and receptive; only in the sense, however, that by faith the merit of Christ, justifying grace, etc., must be received, and by no means in the other, that in faith there is an effective cause of justification. This is contained already in the general statement of the APOL. (II, 53, German): "Wherefore, whenever we speak of the faith that justi- fies, or justifying faith, these three things always concur. First, the divine promise; second, that this offers grace gratuitously, without merit; third, that the blood and merit of Christ constitute the treasure through which sin is paid for. The promise is received through faith. The fact, moreover, that it offers grace without merit utterly excludes all our worthiness and merit, and exalts the great grace and mercy; and the merit of Christ is the treasure, for that must indeed be a treasure and noble security through which the sins of all the world are paid for." More specifically, FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., III, 13): "Faith does not justify because it is so good a work, so illustrious a virtue, but because it apprehends and em- braces the merit of Christ in the promise of the Gospel." HOLL. (903): "Faith justifies not by itself, by its own dignity or valuue, by moving God to justify the believer, but because, as an instru- ment or receptive means, it lays hold of the merit of Christ, in view of which and without the least detriment to His justice, God, of His mere grace, is moved to pardon and consider righteous the penitent sinner believing in Christ. For the energy or internal power of justifying faith is the receiving of Christ, of the grace of God based upon Christ, pardoning sin, offered in the Gospel prom- ise, together with the remission of sins dependent on this, John 1: 12; Rom. 5:17; Gal. 3:14; Acts 10:43. Faith receives the effects of Christ's satisfaction, the remission of sins. From these sacred oracles we gather that faith is the receptive means by which the satisfaction of Christ, and the grace of God obtained by it, are re- ceived." QUEN. (III, 518) distinguishes, therefore, "between the causality of faith, which consists in apprehending and receiving, which is nothing else than an organic and instrumental one, and the ground of that causality, or justifying power, which pertains to faith not in itself and in its own nature, or in so far as it is an act of apprehension. It might appropriate its own merits, or imaginary merits, or human righteousness, and yet it would not in this way justify. Justifying power does not pertain to it from the generous estimation or acceptance upon the part of God, as if God consid- ered faith of so much value as to impart to it the dignity and power of justifying; but solely on account of the justifying object appre- hended, or on account of the object, viz., so far as it apprehends -----------------End of Page 436---------------------------------- the merit of Christ. Paul expressly mentions this, Rom. 3:25, to wit, that the entire justifying power of faith depends on the object apprehended. As, for example, when the hand of a hungry per- son takes the offered bread, that taking, as such, does not satisfy the man, for he might receive clay, or a stone, or other things, which could not satisfy him; but the entire satisfaction depends on the object apprehended and eaten, namely, the bread. So the man hungering for righteousness, Matt. 5:6, apprehends indeed by faith, or with the beggar's hand, the bread that comes from heaven. John 6:50, 51. Yet the apprehending, as such, does not drive away spiritual hunger; but the entire effect of the apprehen- sion depends upon the object apprehended by faith, that is, the redemption and the blood of Jesus Christ." [10] FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., III, 32): "It is properly said that believers, who are justified by faith in Christ, in this life at first obtain indeed an imputed righteousness of faith, but then also they have an incipient righteousness of new obedience or of good works. But these two things are not to be confounded or intermingled in the doctrine of justification by faith in the sight of God." CHMN. (Ex. c. Trid., I, 233): "It is certain that the blessing bestowed through the Son of God is twofold, namely, forgiveness of sins and renovation, in which the Holy Spirit enkindles new virtues in believers. For Christ by His passion merited for us not only the remission of sins, but, in addition, this also, that, on account of His merit, the Holy Spirit is given to us and we may be renewed in the spirit of our mind. These benefits of the Son of God we say are so united, that when we are reconciled, at the same time the spirit of renovation is also given us. But we do not on this account confound them, but dis- tinguish them, so as to give to each its place, order, and character; as we have learned from the Scriptures, that reconciliation or re- mission of sins goes before, and that the beginning of love or of new obedience follows, and especially that faith concludes that it has a reconciled God and the forgiveness of sins, not on account of the subsequent and commenced renovation, but on account of the Son of God, the Mediator." [11] FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., III, 27): "It is necessary that a person should be righteous before he can perform good works." AP. CONF. (II, 36): "It is very foolishly asserted by adversaries, that men, deserving of eternal wrath, merit the pardon of sin by an act of love which they put forth, since it is impossible to love God unless beforehand the pardon of sins has been apprehended by faith. For the heart truly perceiving God to be angry, cannot love Him unless He is shown to be appeased; human nature cannot --------------End of Page 437----------------------------------------- raise itself to the love of an angry, condemning and punishing God, while He terrifies and seems to cast us into eternal death. It is easy for the indolent to fancy these dreams of love, that one guilty of mortal sin can love God above all things, because they do not perceive what the anger or judgment of God is; but, in the agony and stings of conscience, the conscience itself perceives the vanity of these philosophical speculations." [12] CHMN. (Ex. c. Trid., I, 234): "This is the principal ques- tion, this the point, this the matter to be decided: what that is, on account of which God receives the sinner into favor; what can and ought to be opposed to the judgment of God, that we may not be condemned according to the rigid sentence of the Law; what faith ought to seize and present, on what to depend, when it desires to treat with God that it may be pardoned; what should intervene for which God may become appeased and propitious to the sinner who has merited wrath and eternal damnation; what conscience should determine that to be, on account of which adoption is granted us, which affords a sure ground of confidence that we shall be received to eternal life; whether it be the satisfaction, obedience, and merit of the Son of God, the Mediator, or the renovation commenced in us, love, and the other virtues." [13] MEL. (I, 192): "As it is of much importance that this ex- clusive particle (gratis) should be properly understood, I will ex- plain the four reasons on account of which it is necessary to retain and defend it: (1) That due honor be ascribed to Christ; (2) that conscience may retain a sure and firm consolation (if this exclusive particle be ignored, doubt is strengthened, to wit, if you suppose that there is no pardon unless you have a contrition or a love suf- ficiently worthy, doubt will adhere, which produces at one time contempt of God, at another hatred and despair); (3) that true prayer may be offered; (4) that the difference between the Law and the Gospel may be seen." [14] FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., III, 36): "Paul means this when he urges with so much diligence and zeal, in the matter of justifica- tion by faith, the exclusive particles by which works are excluded from it, such as these: `without works,' `without the law,' `with- out merit,' `by grace alone,' `gratis,' `not of works.' But all these exclusives are embraced in these words, when we teach, `we are justified before God, and saved, by faith alone.' For in this way our works are excluded, not indeed in the sense that true faith can exist without contrition, or as if good works did not necessarily follow true faith (as its most certain fruits), or as if believers in Christ ought not to perform them; but works are excluded from the -------------End of Page 438---------------------------------------- doctrine of justification before God, lest they may be introduced and mixed in the matter of the justification of the sinner before God, as if necessary and absolutely pertaining to it. This is the true meaning of the exclusive particles in the doctrine of justification, which must be firmly and sedulously retained and urged in its discussion." CHMN. (Loc. Th., II, 283): "Should the inquiry be made why we contend so strenuously for the particle `alone,' and are not rather contented with those exclusive particles which are contained in the Scriptures (the terms `by grace, freely, without works, imputation'), the reasons are weighty and true. For as the Church, in all its periods, has used freely some modes of speaking that things might be most plainly propounded, explained, defended, and retained against the various artifices of enemies; so, in the article of justification, we give a prominent place to the exclusive particles of Paul. If it be asked for what purpose and on what account we have adopted and desire to retain the particle `alone' we anser, the reasons are true and weighty. This particle `alone' embraces at once, and that very significantly, all the exclusive particles which the Scriptures use." In order to specify very particularly the sense in which the phrase, "we are justified by faith alone," is used, and to guard against misunderstandings, the Dogmaticians append a number of explana- tions, from which we select the following. QUEN. (III, 552 sq.): "(1) We do not here speak of that energy (energeia) of faith, or of that operation of justifying faith, which manifests itself in various acts of virtues, as love, hope, etc.; but of the operation which is peculiar to it, native and singular, and is entirely incommunicable to all other moral excellencies, namely, the apprehension and application of the merit of Christ. (2) The exclusive particle `alone' does not exclude different kinds of causes, but subordinates them. For it is not opposed (a) to the grace of God, the principal efficient cause of justification; (b) nor to the merit of Christ; (c) nor to the Word and Sacraments, which are the instrumental causes of our justification, on the part of God offering and granting; but (d) to our works, for it is they that are excluded by this proposition, so that the proposition, faith alone justifies, is equivalent to this, faith without works justifies. (3) Distinguish between the ex- clusion of works with respect to their actual presence, and with respect to the communication of efficiency. Works are excluded not from being present, but from the communication of efficiency; not that they are not present to faith and the justified, but that they have no energy or causation in connection with faith in the justification of man. (4) Distinguish between faith considered in ------------------------End of Page 439------------------------------ respect to justification itself (and then it is only the intrument appre- hending the merit of Christ, and it alone justifies) and considered in the person justified, or after justification (and thus it is never alone, but always attended with other graces, and, indeed, the root and beginning of them all). (5) Distinguish between faith alone and a solitary faith. Faith alone justifies; that is, it is the only organ by which we lay hold of the righteousness of Christ and apply it to ourselves. But it never exists alone, nor is soli- tary, that is, detached and separated from the other virtues; be- cause true faith is always living, not dead, and therefore it has good works present with itself as its proper effect." [15] The most correct and common expression is, "we are justi- fied by faith; that is;, through faith." Synonymous in import are the expressions, "we are justified by grace, by the merit, by the obedience of Christ." (Comp. FORM. CONC., Sol. Dec., III, 9 and 12.) If the expression be used, "faith alone justifies," to avoid all misunderstanding, this is explained as follows. MUSAEUS (in HOLL.): "When it is said concerning faith, in the nominative case, that IT justifies, the language seems to be figurative. The meaning is not that faith absolves a man from sins and accounts him righteous; but faith is said to justify, because God, in view of it, regards us righteous, or because faith (not by its own, but by the worth of Christ's merit) moves God to justify us." HOLL. (ib.). "Osiander justly remarks: If we wish to speak accurately and according to Scripture, it must be said that God alone justi- fies (for it is an act of God alone), but by faith man is justified.' For faith of itself does not justify, because it is merely appre- hensive. The mode of speaking, because it has become so com- mon to say, faith alone justifies, can be retained, if the phrase be properly explained in accordance with Scripture usage." [16] FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., III, 6): "This article in regard to the righteousness of faith is the chief one in the entire Christian doctrine, without which distressed consciences can have no true and firm consolation, or rightly appreciate the riches of Christ's grace. This is also confirmed by the testimony of Luther, when he says, if this one article remains uncorrupted the Christian Church will remain uncorrupted, in harmony, and without party divisions; but if it is corrupted, it is impossible successfully to oppose a single error or a fanatical spirit." CHMN. (Loc. Th., II, 216): "This one point mainly distin- guishes the Church from all nations and superstitions, as Augustine says: `The Church distinguishes the just from the unjust, not by the law of works but by the law of faith.' Yea, this article is, as -----------------End of Page 440-------------------------------------- it were, the citadel and chief bulwark of the entire Christian doctrine and religion, which being either obscured, or adulterated, or subverted, it is impossible to retain the purity of the doctrine in other points. But, this doctrine remaining untouched, all idol- atries, superstitions, and perversions in all the other doctrines destroy themselves." [17] The later theologians add further: "The effects and prop- erties of justification." As effects, QUEN. (III, 526) enumerates: "(1) our mystical union with God, John 15:4-6, 14, 23; Gal. 2: 19, 20; 3:27; Eph. 3:17; (2) adoption as sons of God, John 1: 12; Rom. 8:14; (3) peace of conscience, Rom. 5:1; (4) cetain hearing of prayer, Rom. 8:32; James 1:5-7; (5) sanctification, Rom. 6:12; (7) eternal salvation, Rom. 4:7, 8." As properties: (1) Immediate efficacy, for it is not gradual and successive, as reno- vation, but in a moment, an instant, simultaneously and at once. (2) Perfection, because all sins are perfectly pardoned, so that there is need of no satisfaction of our own, 1 John 1:7; Rom. 8: 1; Heb. 10:14. (3) Identity in the mode of justification, in respect to all that are to be saved. A common salvation of all presupposes a common faith and a common and the same mode of justification. Acts 4:12; 15:11; Rom. 3:22-26. (4) Assurance in us, not conjectural, but infallible and divine. Rom. 8:25, 38, 39; 5:1, 2; Eph. 3:12; 1 John 3:14. (5) Growth, not as to the act, which is instantaneous, but in regard to faith and the consciousness of justification. 2 Cor. 10:15; Col. 1:10; 2 Pet. 3:18; Eph. 4:14, 15; (6) Constant continuance. For as the forgiveness of sins, so also our justification is renewed daily, and not only in the first beginning, but faith daily is imputed to the believer for righteous- ness, and thus our justification is continuous, Rev. 22:11; (7) Amissability, Ez. 18:24; Heb. 6:5, 6; John 15:2; (8) Recoverable- ness, John 6:37; Rom. 5:20. The prodigal son is an example, Luke 15." PARA. 43. Concomitants and Consequences of Justifying Faith. Having discussed faith as the means by which we partake of salvation, and justification as the effect of faith, there remain to be described the internal conditions and the moral change which occur in man at the same time with and after justifica- tion. But these, however, are also operations of the Holy Ghost. Agreeably to the order in which the Holy Spirit pro- duces them [1] we enumerate: 1. The Call; 2. Illumination; 3. Regeneration and Conversion; 4. Mystical Union; 5. Renovation. ---------------------End of Page 441----------------------------- PARA. 44. (1.) Vocation. "The Call is the act of grace by which the Holy Spirit manifests by means of the Word of God His will in regard to the salvation of sinners to those persons who are out of the Church, and offers them benefits from Christ the Redeemer, that they may be led to the Church, converted, and obtain eternal salvation." HOLL. (803). [2] The grace of God through which He desires to effect man's salvation, begins with the Call, for God must present salvation to man, since uncalled, man would not even desire it. It is distinguished as indirect and direct, or, what is here equivalent, as general and special. [3] By the former is understood the call which reaches man through conscience and the natural knowledge of God, and thus awakens only in general an undefined long- ing for salvation, which is yet unknown to him; by the latter, the call which comes through the preaching of the Gospel, and directly invites to entrance into the kingdom of God, to conversion, and to the reception of salvation in Christ. It is only the latter which is here discussed. It is not merely an external call, but is invariably accompanied by the influ- ences of the Holy Spirit, of such a kind that the person so called cannot fail to perceive the drawing of the Holy Spirit, and that his conscience testifies that he has great reason to follow this call; it is, therefore, at once as seriously intended as it is always efficacious. [4] As, in the preaching of the Gospel, the only possibility is afforded, by which man can ob- tain salvation through Jesus Christ (the instrumental cause is the external preaching of the Word. Rom. 10:17; 2 Thess. 2:14), [5] God makes use of this as the means through which He sends the call to men; and, according as He calls them through men whom He appoints and urges to do this, [6] or immediately, and without their instrumentality, the call is designated as mediate or immediate, and consequently as ordinary or extraordinary. [7] Only in extraordinary cases, however, does God call otherwise than through human instru- mentality. The reason of God's calling is to be found alto- gether and only in His pity for the wretchedness in which men lie so long as they do not partake of the salvation of Christ. [8] Therefore, as all men are in the same condemnation, --------------End of Page 442----------------------------------- this call is addressed to all without distinction, and is therefore universal; and this (a) on account of the purpose of God, who earnestly wishes that all men should come to the knowledge of the truth, 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9; (b) on account of the com- mand of Christ, Matt. 11:28; (3) on account of the message itself, for all men in the whole world have been called, Mark 16:20; Rom. 10:18. The universality of the call consists, however, not in that God has called all individuals in the different ages of the world; but in that He provides that the preaching through which the call is to be extended to men, could, in general, in some way reach all nations, and thus also all individuals. [9] The call is, therefore, extended equally to all men, inas- much as saving grace is offered to all men through the same menans. But an inequality occurs in regard to the order, the manner, and the time of the call: to some it comes earlier than to others; for some it continues longer than for others; some receive the preaching of the Gospel immediately from heralds sent by God, while others receive it at third hand. [10] The proof that the call has reached all nations and all indi- viduals it is not indeed easy for us to produce, but from his- tory and revelation we know the following: First, that there were three times in which God caused the news of salvation to be solemnly proclaimed in such a manner that thereby, upon each occasion, opportunity was given to all then living to hear it; whereby, at the same time, it became possible for them to hand down these glad tidings to all their posterity. These per- iods were, the days of Adam, of Noah, and of the Apostles. [11] If then, in the course of time, some people be found who are entirely ignorant of the preaching of the Gospel, this does not militate against the universality of the call, but arises from this, that these people did not faithfully preserve the truth preached to them or did not lay it to heart, in consequence of which their posterity have to suffer. It is through their guilt that the call which God designed to be unviversal became particular. [12] Moreover, we know that God did not limit His solemn call to the three occasions we have cited, but that He also adopted all kinds of expedients whereby the call afterwards could reach nations and individuals. [13] Why God, however, caused ------------End of Page 443--------------------------------------- the call to be more directly addressed to some nations than to others is indeed unknown to us; for the purposes and ways of God are confessedly unfathomable. But this cannot con- fuse us in regard to the doctrine that God's purpose in the call was universal; for this purpose is most clearly declared in Scripture. [14] [1] HOLL. (795): "The acts of applying grace, according to the order in which they cohere, and follow one another, are the call, illumination, conversion, regeneration, justification, mystical union with the Triune God, renovation, preservation of faith and holiness, glorification." Thus they are enumerated by nearly all the later Dogmaticians. Justification, which we have already discussed, we now omit. HOLL. (ib.) thus vindicates this arrange- ment: "This order, and, as it were, concatenated series of acts of applying grace, we learn from Acts 20:17, where Christ says to Paul, `I send thee to the Gentiles;' behold the grace of the call! `That thou mayest open their eyes;' behold the illumination! `To turn them from darkness to light;' behold the act of con- version! `And from the power of Satan unto God;' behold regeneration itself, through which we become the sons of God! `That they may receive forgiveness of sins;' behold justification! `And have inheritance among them which are sanctified through faith in me;' behold union with Christ by faith, sanctification, the preservation of holiness, and glorification!" In the Symb. Books the same order is indicated (as also now and then by the Dogmaticians of the period next following their preparation), but only in passing, viz., in the SMALL CATECH., Art. 3, and FORM. CONC., Sol. Dec., II, 50. The "three ways of the Mystics" are rejected, according to which "he who is called to the Church can expeditiously reach the sacred mount of perfection and deification by three ways: the purifying, the illuminating, and the uniting." The reason for this rejection: "because neither are these arranged in proper order, nor do the men who pursue them certainly reach the goal fixed by the Mystics." [2] QUEN.'s extended definition (III, 466): "Calling is the act of the applying grace of the Holy Spirit, by which He manifests towards the whole race of fallen man the most gracious will of God through the external preaching of the Word, in itself always suffi- cient and effective, and offers to all men the benefits obtained through the merit of the Redeemer, with the serious intention that all may be saved by Christ, and be presented with eternal life." [3] In the former manner KG. and QUEN. distinguish; in the ---------------End of Page 444--------------------------------- latter, HOLL. QUEN. (III, 461): "Taken widely, it includes likewise the indirect call, which arises from the consideration of the universe, its government, and the divine beneficence towards cratures, Rom. 1:19, 20; 2:14, 15; Acts 17:27; likewise by the general and ob- scure rumor concerning a certain assembly in which it is said the true God is known and worshiped, 1 Kings 10:1; 2 Kings 5:2, 3; 1 Thess. 1:8. The methods of vocation just enumerated are rather invitations and incitements to inquire about the true worship of God and the assembly in which it flourishes, than the call properly so called; the reason is, they have not for their proximate and immediate end the eternal salvation of man or the knowledge of Christ, the Redeemer, and the mysteries necessary for the attain- ment of eternal salvation, but only the leading of man to the gate of the true Church." The term is strictly taken, as it signifies the direct call by which God calls men to faith and repentance, by means of the Word read or preached, and offers to them the grace of conversion by which they may be converted and partake of salvation. HOLL. (803): "A general and pedagogical call to the Church is that by which God more obscurely and from afar invites sinners who are out of the Church to inquire in regard to the true worship of God and the assembly in which it florishes, and leads them to the gate of the Church. The general call occurs: (a) Objectively, by the manifestation of the government and the divine beneficence towards creatures; (b) Efficaciously, by the efficacious divine influ- ence and impulse, by which, both from theoretic and practical innate notions, and from proofs of the divine benignity, practical conclusions are produced in the minds of unbelievers to inquire, although in an unequal degree, concerning the true worship of God; (c) Cumulatively, through the rumor concerning the Church spread over the world." [4] QUEN. (III, 463): "The form of the call consists in a seri- ous (Matt. 23:37) and by the divine intention always sufficient (Rom. 8:30) and always efficacious (Rom. 1:16) manifestation of the will of God and offer of the blessings procured by Christ." (Id. 464): "No call of God, whether of itself and its intrinsic quality or of the intention of God, is inefficacious, so that it cannot and should not produce a salutary effect; but every call is effica- cious (for the preached Word of God has a divine and sufficient power and efficacy to effect regeneration, conversion, etc., by the ordination and appointment of God Himself), although it may be prevented from attaining its effect by men presenting an obstacle, and thus becomes inefficacious by the fault of the wicked and perverse will of -----------------------End of Page 445----------------------------- men." The distinction made by the Calvinists between an external and an internal call is therefore rejected. QUEN. (III, 466): "The Calvinists make a distinction between an external and internal call, and exhibit both: (a) In reference to their origin: becaause the former is made through the ministtry of the Word offered to all or some externally, the other by the Holy Spirit illuminating and guiding within the hearts of the elect. (b) In reference to their subjects: because the former is common to the elect and the repro- bate, the other peculiar to the elect, so that the reprobate never partake of it. (c) In reference to the efficacy: because the latter, alone being efficacious and irresistible, not only enlightens the mind, but also bends the will, and never, when it once takes pos- session of the mind, can be abolished or extinguished; but the former without this would be useless and ineffectual to salvation. We admit the distinction, but not so as to oppose the external to the internal call, nor to separate one from the other, as the external call is the medium and instrument of the internal, and by this God works efficaciously in the hearts of men. If the external did not exactly correspond to the internal call, if a person might be called externally and not internally, it would be vain, fallacious, illusory." [5] In regard to the call which comes to men by the preaching of the Gospel and by that of the Law, HOLL. (807): "God calls poor sinners directly and savingly to the Church by the Gospel (2 Thess. 2:14), to which also Baptism pertains (John 3:5). Neverthelesss the divine Law contributes something to the call of sinners, but only indirectly, negatively, and accidentally." AP. CONF. (V, 51): "God terrifies by the Law, that there may be place for consolation and vivification, because hearts secure and not perceiving the wrath of God despise consolation." [6] QUEN. (III, 463): "The ministerial cause is either the ordi- nary minister of the Word, Matt. 22:3, or whenever any other person out of the usual order, with whatever intention, shall have announced the Word, 2 Kings 5:7." [7] QUEN. (III, 462): "The mediate call is that by which God in the Old Testament called some by the ministry of angels, or men, and now, since the institution of the Gospel ministry, calls by men alone. We use the term immediate, not with reference to the medium or Word, without which no salutary call can take place, but in reference to men, because God Himself presented the Word without human assistance. Thus Gen. 12:1; Acts 9:3:4." "Ordinary vocation is that which is accomplished by the divinely appointed means, that is, by the external and visible ministry of the Word. Extraordinary is when any one is called to the light of ------------End of Page 446--------------------------------------- the Gospel, not by the ordinary ministry, but by miracles, trances and other extraordinary means. Thus the Magi, Matt. 2:1; the robber, Luke 23:42. The extraordinary call is special and very rare: formerly, indeed, under the Old Testament and in the com- mencement of the New, it occurred; but now, since the Gospel has been universally preached and the Church planted by the apostles, it has clearly ceased. Further, a distinction is made between the solemn call, which occurs through the preached Word, and the less solemn, which occurs through the read Word or that which may be read." [8] QUEN. (III, 463): "The impelling and moving internal cause is nothing but the mercy and goodness of God founded in the merit of Christ, 2 Tim. 1:9; the external is the utter misery of man." HOLL. (806): "Human wretchedness is not the cause of God's gracious call, but it gave occasion to His commiseration." [9] HOLL. (809): "When we say that the call to God's king- dom is universal, we do not assert that the doctrine of the Gospel was actually announced to each and every man openly and imme- diately by ministers specially sent; but that God most merciful has so clearly made known the doctrine of the Gospel concerning ob- taining salvation by faith in Christ, that all men, without excep- tion, can arrive at the knowledge of it, so that God has not by a divine decree denied to any nation or any person the benefit of the doctrine or the way by which he may attain to its knowledge." [10] HOLL. (816): "Ordinary calling is equal in substance, or so far as it is essentially considered (because we are called by grace equally salutary; because the same powers of believing are offered to all; because we are called by the same means, by the same Gos- pel, by the same baptism of equal efficacy, if you regard the divine purpose); but it is unequal in regard to order, mode, degree, time, and interval. As to the order, the Gospel was first to be preached to the Jews and afterwards to the Gentiles, Acts 13:46. As to the mode and degree, some have received more, others less light. Some nations are called by the Word solemnly preached, others by the Word written and read, others by the diffused rumors of the Church, of which some are nearer and clearer and others more remote and obscure. In regard to time and interval, some nations are called earlier, others later. To some the light of the Gospel shone for a longer time, to others it became obscure after a few years. Inasmuch as we cannot, in this present mortal state, en- tirely fathom this accidental inequality, let us acquiesce in God's dispensation of the means of salvation; let us acknowledge and admire, but not anxiously explore, the abyss of the divine judg- ments inscrutable to human minds. Rom. 11:33." --------------------End of Page 447------------------------------------ [11] HUTT. (Loc. Com., 788): "God has revealed His Word at least three times to the whole world. First, after the creation of the world, in the Adamitic Church. Then, after the deluge, in the house and family of Noah. Then, after the ascension of Christ to heaven, in the departure and dispersion of the apostles into the whole world. (Concerning the apostolic age it was said: `Where the Apostolate does not come, the Epistle does.'--quo non venit apostole, eo epistole. Rom. 10:18.) Here doubtless it became altogether easy that the Word of divine grace should be always re- tained by their posterity, and, what could just as well happen, be similarly propagated to others." N. B.--Very properly, the Dog- maticians do not date the call from the time of the New Testament revelation, since the antecedent revelations have the same end in view, and together consitute but one revelation; wherefore, also, when they designate the Church as the terminus vocationis ad quem, i.e., the place to which we are called, they understand this in the widest sense, embracing Israel, also, as belonging to it. [12] GRH. (IV, 188): "The call is universal, as to God who issues it, but it becomes special through the fault of man: First, inasmuch as some reject it with Epicurean contempt; some also per- secuting and violently repelling it. Then, inasmuch as, by the fault of ancestors, the lost Word is not always in fact preached in all nations and places." HOLL. (810): "That the Gentiles were for- merly, and many nations now are, destitute of the preaching of the Gospel, is their own fault, not the will and plan of God, denying them arbitrarily the light of the Gospel. For, (1) THose nations despise the Word of God and maliciously reject it: (2) They ne- glect the call and knowledge of Christian doctrines and rites in gen- eral, known by report to all the world; (3) They do not apply to a proper use the instructive and effective call, viz., so as to inquire after the true worship of God and the assembly in which it prevails. For which reason they deprive themselves, by their own faults, of the salutary call which is made by the preaching of the Gospel." To the objection, the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, HUTT. (789) replies: "The meaning of our thesis is this, that the descendants suffer on account of the fault of their parents in this, that they are born without the Church; but not that, on account of the ingratitude of their parents, all power of hearing the divine Word, or even salvation itself, is cut off from or denied to them. The former we assert, the latter we deny. The former is merely a temporal punishment, which still does not exclude or prevent them from coming to the Church and hearing the Word of God, although born without the Church.... For now, just as formerly, God ----------------End of Page 448------------------------------------ has placed the Church in a prominent position, so that the tidings concerning God and the religion of Christians diffuse themselves among all nations and people that are under heaven. But now, because those people partly cling contumaciously to the idolatrous folly of their parents and ancestors, and partly ridicule the true worship of God, and treat it with contempt, they surely do not now bear the sins of their parents, but are to be regarded as perishing and being condemned by the just judgment of God for their own fault." And GRH. (IV, 190): "If the case of Gentile children be ad- duced, the answer to this and similar things is: The judgments of God may be hidden; they can never be unjust. Many things per- taining to this head of doctrine are beyond our reach by the light of nature and of grace, which we will at some time understand better by the light of glory. These children not only derive a taint of corruption from their parents, but likewise spring from such ancestors as were intrusted with the precious deposit of His Word, that was to be handed down to their descendants, and of the Sacra- ments, by which also their children might be received to the grace of God. Let them accuse, therefore, the sins of parents, not the justice and mercy of God. Nor do we improperly require that such objectors should satisfy us that these children, if they had attained maturity, would have received the proffered grace of God, and not rather have imitated the sins of their parents." [13] HUTT. (Loc. Com., 789): "So foul was the ingratitude of the greater portion in this matter (at the time of the preaching in those three great periods), that it cast away that treasure, as well to its own loss, as what is worse, by its own fault. But neverthe- less, in the midst of this stupendous ingratitude of the world and contempt of the Word, God still wished that the rays of His mercy should shine forth in this, that the Church of God (or the people who for the time being carefully cherished the incomparable treasure of the divine Word) was always assigned a prominent place in the world, so that any nation or people, if not extremely unconcerned, could readily be acquainted with the preaching of the divine Word. As indeed, even to-day, the Christian religion cannot but be sufficiently accesible to Jews and Turks, as those who are everywhere living in the midst of Christians, unless they themselves prevent it by extreme obstinacy." HOLL. (810): "Although except in most recent times, the universal, stated and actual preaching of the divine Word, did not always and every- where extend to all nations; yet God did not altogether withhold the universal call from any nation, nor refuse to any man access to the Church. For God calls many nations, (a) by a less formal -------------------End of Page 449--------------------------------- call; (b) through the tidings concerning the Church, diffused far and wide; (c) through the proofs of the divine goodness every- where obvious in the kingdom of nature; (d) through an effective divine impulse, by which practical inferences are suggested and consciences are stimulated to inquire concerning the true worship of God and the assembly in which it flourishes." [14] QUEN. (III, 465): "That God bestows the light of the Gospel upon one nation, while another is neglected; that some Turks, Americans, and other barbarians are converted to the faith, others who are their equals are left in their unbelief--this must also be ascribed to the hidden and unsearchable judgment of God. It must be acknowledged that God does some things in regard to the order, mode, time, and degree of the call according to His sovereign pleasure." But GRH. (IV, 191): "But let us admit, that in these and similar special cases, we cannot find out and ex- plain exactly the causes of the divine counsels; nevertheless we must buy no means have recourse to the absolute decree of reprobation, but adhere firmly to those asserted general statements, 1 Tim. 2:4; Ez. 33:11." The Symbolical Books abide by the simple statement: "That not only the preaching of repentance, but likewise the promise of the Gospel is universal, that is, it pertains to all men" (FORM. CONC., II, 28), and that the call is effected by the Word, without investigat- ing further special cases which occur, and which present a seeming contradiction to the doctrine of the universality of the call." PARA. 45. (2.) Illumination.* As, to the natural man, everything spiritual is foolishness, and he cannot perceive it, but, on the other hand, many preju- dices and doubts prevent him from rightly understanding that which is spiritual, the call would be fruitless, if the Holy Spirit did not so operate that the Gospel should appear in its true light and significance to man. [1] On this account the further operation of the Holy Spirit aims at the removal of this folly of the natural man, at dis- placing his doubts and prejudices, and furnishing him correct knowledge and comprehension of the substance and meaning of the Gospel. The aim, therefore, here is not only an exter- -------------------------------------------------------------- * HOLLAZIUS alone discussed Illumination at length under a separate head; and the reason of this no doubt was, that the questions here treated of acquired a special importance just at that time, partly in opposition to Mysticism, and partly to Pietism, which was then making its appearance. Earlier Dogmaticians either have not separate locus for illumination, or they treat of it very briefly, as CALOVIUS, who places it among the features of the call. --------------End of Page 450------------------------------------- nal knowledge of the plan of salvation, but an internal knowl- edge; [2] the opening of man's mind for the due appreciation of the Gospel, the removal of all hindraces, which might conceal from him God's gracious plan of salvation, and that it may become internally clear to him how miserable is his sin- ful condition, as shown in the Scriptures, and what a remedy and comfort have been afforded for it in the grace which is in Christ Jesus. [3] The Holy Spirit having brought about such a result, every- thing is done on the part of God, and it remains for the will of man to determine whether this salvation is to be received. [4] This is the effect which the Holy Spirit designs to pro- duce by illumination. "Illumination is the act of applying grace, by which the Holy Spirit, through the ministry of the Word, teaches a man who is a sinner and called to the Church, and continues to instruct him in an ever-increasing measure, with the earnest purpose to remove the darkness of ignorance and error, and imbue him with the knowledge of the Word of God, by instilling from the Law the conviction of sin, and from the Gospel the apprehension of divine mercy, founded upon the merit of Christ." [5] HOLL. (819). Illumination is, accordingly, more immediately an operation of the Holy Spirit upon the intellect of man; He addresses Himself however in this act at least mediately to the will, in as far as this illu- mination is designed, by the conviction of the misery of sin which it produces, and by presenting the grace of God, to con- duct to conversion and the sanctification of the will. [6] It takes place in every man who lays to heart the call of the Holy Spirit, and opens his ear and heart, but not without this, as the Holy Spirit never works by constraint and never when man resists; [7] and He never comes to men except through the divine Word, [8] of which its ministers are the vehicle, [9] and which those who desire to be illuminated must permit to work in them in prayer and religious meditation. [10] As the Word of God is divided into Law and Gospel, so can illumination, as it is effected by the one or the other, be dis- tinguished as legal or evangelical; and, according to the diverse missions intrusted to the Law and the Gospel respectively, the former will reveal to man only his sins and the wrath of God -----------------End of Page 451----------------------------------- consequent upon them, and the other grace in Christ; [11] and the effect will be different in these respects, that the one will cause only terror and the other comfort in view of the proffered salvation. Hence, it is only the influence proceeding from the Gospel that is really efficient in securing salvation, while that proceeding from the Law is rather preparatory to the former. [12] Like all other knowledge, that produced by the Holy Spirit is not instantaneous, but gradual, as may be seen from this, that the knowledge here spoken of consists of various particu- lars, which follow one another in natural order. [13] And as, in the order of nature, external precedes internal knowledge, so here the Holy Spirit produces an external, which is prepar- atory to the internal knowledge, and then produces the inter- nal; so that there may be further a distinction between a literal and pedagogic illumination, and one that is spiritual and entirely saving. [14] But as man attains the one as well as the other kind of knowledge only upon proper conduct on his part in reference to the grace ministered to him, the operation of the Holy Spirit, if the will of man do not proceed further, may also be restricted to the first; or, the operations of the Spirit may be restricted to the intellect, and not extend to the will of man as they should, [15] in which case the object of the Holy Spirit is not entirely accomplished in man, and the illumination is not perfect; [16] yet it still cannot be denied, that this first state of illumination is effected by the Holy Spirit. [17] [1] HOLL. (850): "In an unilluminated man there is not merely a negative ignorance, but also an ignorance of depraved inclination, which is error contrary to true knowledge, because the natural man not only does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, but they are foolishness unto him, 1 Cor. 2:14. Therefore, not only mere ignorance, but likewise carnal-mindedness (Rom. 8:6) and the wisdom of this world (1 Cor. 1:20), are opposed to a saving knowl- edge. The world has its wisdom, but it is immersed in the dark- ness of arrogance, so as to array itself against the wisdom of God, 2 Cor. 10:5." [2] HOLL. (819): "An objective illumination is not intended here, presenting externally the light of the divine Word, but an effective one, in which the Holy Spirit enkindles the light of knowl- ---------------------End of Page 452----------------------------------- edge, and subjective illumination, in which the blind sinner permits himself to be enlightened by the operation of the Holy Spirit. (Id. 851.) When we represent illumination as the impartation of knowledge, we do not mean merely external, which is produced by the tongue or pen of the minister of the Church, but likewise in- ternal, by which the Holy Spirit, by His own special and gracious concurrence, enkindles the light of supernatural wisdom, through the divine Word preached or read, in the hearts of hearers or readers who do not maliciously opppose it." [3] HOLL. (850): "Blindness of the intellect, filled with the darkness of ignorance and error (Eph. 4:18), is the starting-point of illumination. The light of saving knowledge is its goal. By the Law is the knowledge of sin, Rom. 3:20. The knowledge of the glorious grace of God, unveiled in the face of Jesus Christ, proceeds from the Gospel, 2 Cor. 4:6. Assent attends this knowledge, by which man enlightened regards as sure and beyond doubt all that is revealed in the Word of God, particularly the Gospel message concerning the remission of sins and the eternal salvation to be secured through Christ; which undoubting assent is called elengchos, conviction of the intellect, Heb. 11:1." [4] HOLL. (820): "The first and principal design of illumina- tion is to prepare man for conversion. For thus the natural dark- ness, the ignorance of the mysteries, and the errors opposed to them, are expelled by grace from the mind of man, and he is im- bued with a knowledge of God and of sacred things, and illumin- ated, as if by a light, so that he is prepared to receive justifying grace. This illuminating grace, therefore, precedes the completion of conversion." [5] HOLL. (850): "Divine illumination consists formally in the instruction of the Holy Spirit by means of the read or preached Word, not merely external, but likewise internal, and penetrating efficaciously the inmost recesses of the human heart, so that the darkness of ignorance and error is expelled, and the light of super- natural knowledge is infused into it." Id. (819): "Enlightening grace is called teaching grace, because the Holy Spirit, in enlighten- ing, teaches all things necessary to salvation, John 14:26; likewise anointing grace, from 1 John 2:20, 27; opening of the eyes of the mind, Acts 26:18, for, as a blind person obtains the power of see- ing by the opening of his eyes, so the sinner, filled with the dark- ness of ignorance, receives, by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the power of knowing the true God." [6] HOLL. (828): "First, the intellect of the sinner led to the Church is immediately enlightened (2 Cor. 4:6; Eph. 1:18); sub- -----------------End of Page 453--------------------------------------- sequently and mediately, the will also, Tit. 2:11, 12. The saving grace of God which, like the beneficent sun, has appeared to all men, teaches the intellect of the sinner, and sheds upon it the light of knowledge, so that this light is diffused upon the will to enable it to flee from wickedness and choose holiness of life. Therefore the apostle desires for the Colossians illumination, that they may be sanctified, Col. 1:9, 10." The difference between illumination and regeneration is this (832): "The former has respect more to the intellect, regeneration more to the will; the former consists formally in knowledge concerning sacred things from the divine Word, the latter consists formally in the gift of faith. The effect of the former is a knowledge of the divine mysteries; the effect of the latter is confidence in the merits of Christ. The former pre- cedes, the latter follows." The difference between illumination and sanctification is (ib.): "All Christians agree that sanctifica- tion, taken in a broader sense, embraces all the acts of applying grace; taken in a narrower sense, it differs from illumination (1) in regard to the particular subject, because by illumination the intel- lect, proximately and formally, and by sanctification the will, is made perfect; (2) in regard to the extent, because more men are illuminated than sanctified; (3) in regard to their peculiar effect and design, because the effect of illumination is gnosis, or the super- natural knowledge of God and divine things, Eph. 1:18; 2 Cor. 4:6, but the effect of sanctification is holiness and righteousness, Eph. 4:24." [7] Id. (827): "The most gracious God seriously designs to illuminate all men, but only they are actually illuminated who, called and led to the Church, receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, and listen attentively to the divine Word, read it, and meditate upon it. The grace of the Holy Spirit is not irresistible, for the sinner, if obstinately perverse, may hinder the supernatural illu- mination of the Holy Spirit by opposing a veil or malicious ob- stacle, 2 Cor. 4:3, 4. But the sinner not obstinately opposing is efficaciously enlightened by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, Ps. 119:130." [8] Id. (820): "The Holy Spirit does not immediately, but by means of the divine Word, enlighten us, 2 Pet. 1:18, 19." (Quali- fied, however, with great care (825), "the power of illumination which pertains to the divine Word is not accurately confined to the acts of hearing, reading, or meditation; but the Word of God heard, read, or conveyed to the mind, and retained by it, always retains its illuminating power.") (821): "God hath not prom- ised in His Word that any man by ecstasy shall be illuminated, ---------------------End of Page 454----------------------------- his faith be confirmed, and a foretaste of eternal life be imparted; in opposition to the Platonics, the Quakers, the Mystics." Defini- tion of ecstasy (trance): "It is a rare and extraordinary operation either of God, or of a corrupt imagination, or of the devil, alienat- ing the mind of a man from his bodily senses, so that, the use of the latter ceasing, he becomes more ready and quick to receive the objects of imagination. It differs from rapture, because ecstasy simply denotes a departure of the mind from the senses, but rap- ture adds violence." [9] Id. (826): "The Holy Spirit truly and really enlightens the souls of men in darkness in regard to sacred things by means of ministers of the Word, performing in the right way the public office of teaching, Eph. 3:8, 9; 2 Cor. 4:6; Acts 26:18; John 5: 35; Matt. 5:14." [10] Id. (844): "To obtain spiritual illumination, three auxili- aries are necessary: prayer (Luke 11:13; Eph. 1:17, 18), medi- tation (John 5:39), trials (Ps. 119:71). The following positions are in additon, opposed to the erroneous views of the Mystics and Quietists: "I. The illumination and regeneration of the sinner do not take place by the purgation or abstraction of the soul from created ob- jects, and the turning of it in upon itself." THe following expla- nations are added: "(a) We do not disallow all abstractions of the mind from for- eign objects and secular cares in the actual use of the Word and in godly meditations and prayers. We oppose that abstraction or annihilation by which the mind is presumed to be withdrawn from all creatures and from the divine gifts, and loses itself in God. "(b) We do not condemnn all resignation, since our divines in- culcate a temperate and godly resignation (Gelassenheit). We reject that resignation which involves the destruction of all the affections, desires, and thoughts. "(c) We must distinguish from the descent into the heart or soul for the purpose of bringing to remembrance sin, or the state of mis- ery, and searching for repentance and faith, that introspection whose object is to apprehend the inner light immediately revealing. ... The present controversy has respect to the introversion of the mind upon itself, to wait for, and observe, and apprehend the in- ternal light, immediately making revelations." II. (847): "So far from expecting in silence a supernatural divine light, the external Word of God, which is a most clear light, is on the contrary to be earnestly preached, carefully heard, fre- quently read, attentively pondered, and, in addition, devout pray- ------------------End of Page 455-------------------------------------- ers, mingled with sacred hymns, are to be raised to heaven, that the light of saving knowledge may arise in our hearts, and contin- ually increase." We add also the following remarks: (848): "(a) When the Mystics distinguish between silence of words, thoughts, and desires, we approve of the first silence, i.e., of words in a certain respect; for meditation on the divine Word is aided by silence in our houses: but we disapprove of the silence of desires and thoughts. "(b) The expectation of divine assistance, united with silence, is proper for true Christians, but not the silent expectation of directly revealing light. "(c) The doctrine of an internal Sabbath of the soul, so far as it denotes (alpha) cessation from works of the flesh, (beta) rest of the soul in God, (gamma) meditation on the divine mercies, (delta) the desire and expectation of the eternal Sabbath, is retained and inculcated in our churches. But an internal Sabbath is rejected, so far as it denotes, not only a silence of words, but of all the thoughts and senses." [11] Id. (824): "Illlumination, in respect to the illuminating means, is either legal or evangelical. The former is that which man- ifests to us sin, the wrath of God, and the temporal and eternal punishments of sin (Rom. 7:7). The latter reveals to us the grace of God, founded on the merit of Christ, righteousness accepted by God, and eternal life (2 Cor. 4:4)." "The Gospel illuminates the hearts of men, that they may know the glory of Christ, raised indeed upon the cross, but also conveyed to heaven and sitting at the Right Hand of God the Father. The Gospel, therefore, declares and manifests the mercy, the wisdom, and the justice of God the Father, in the open face of Christ, who is His express image." [12] Id. (825): "The divine Law, like lightning, has a terrible, slaying and condemning light. But the Gospel, like the beneficent sun, diffuses an exhilarating and vivifying light, 2 Cor. 3:6-9. The Law possesses salutary powers of the pedagogical illumination, Gal. 3:24 (the divine Law shows us and exposes both the native leprosy of the soul and the diseases contracted voluntarily, and thus affords us the occasion of seeking Christ, the physician of souls and the author of righteousness and salvation). But from the Gospel a perfectly saving illumination arises to those who properly use the evangelical doctrine according to the divine pur- pose (which makes know the knowledge of salvation by remis- sion of sins, and reveals the tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us, Luke 1:77, 78)." ------------------End of Page 456----------------------------------- [13] Id. (851): "Ordinary illumination is not accomplished instantaneously, but by intervals, by degrees, by acts frequently repeated, that man may be disposed and prepared to admit con- tinuously more and more light of the truth, so that if he should repel the first degree of illumination, the Holy Spirit may deny him the next, for it cannot occur without the first." "Note.--We speak now of ordinary, not of extraordinary illumination. We do not doubt that God, by special and extra- ordinary grace, and by His absolute power, can entirely illuminate a man at once, so that he may be acquainted with all the articles of faith, since we know that the Holy Spirit infused the gift of tongues into the apostles instantaneously." [14] Id. (840): "Illumination in regard to the man receiving the heavenly doctrine is either literal and pedagogic or spiritual and completely saving. The former is that operation of the Holy Spirit by which, through His grace externally assisting and preparing the way, He instructs with a literal knowledge of the doctrines of religion the intellect of an unregenerate man, who is nevertheless inclining towards regeneration, and produces an historical assent to the Gospel, so that he may be more and more disposed to re- ceive saving faith (John 1:9; 2 Pet. 1:19; Ps. 25:8; Eph. 3:9). The latter is the operation of the Holy Spirit by which, entering and dwelling in the contrite heart of man, He enkindles in him a saving knowledge of the divine mercy established in Christ, pro- duces a confiding assent to the Gospel, and confirms and seals it by His internal testimony." QUEN. (II, 77), expresses the distinction thus: "Pedagogic illumination is merely literal and external, when any one is instructed in the knowledge of divine truth, and is convinced of its certainty in his conscience, but has not this known truth as yet sealed in his heart with the seal, or confirmed by the gracious indwelling, of the Holy Spirit: spiritual, gracious, and internal, when any one, for instance, truly regenerate, not only has a literal understanding of the evangelical doctrine, but is at the same time the temple of the Holy Ghost, inhabited, graciously by Him; or, when the truth is not only known and admitted, but at the same time is strength- ened, confirmed, and sealed by the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit graciously dwelling in the heart." [15] HOLL. (829): "As supernatural illumination is a succes- sive act of applying grace, therefore, without the sanctification of the will, the illumination may be imperfect in the intellect. This is in opposition to all the mystic writers, who regard the purgative process as antedating the illuminative." ------------------End of Page 457------------------------------------- [16] Id. (843): "The sinner is illuminated pedagogically to the end that he may be disposed and prepared for spiritual illumina- tion, by which not only his intellect is enlightened, but his will directed to the love of God and his neighbor. If the sinner who is to be converted does not attain this spiritual illumination, his knowledge of the letter is insufficient, unfruitful, not saving, be- casue it is not applied to its proper use; therefore it may be called finally false, because the true end designed by God is frustrated." Imperfect illumination, and pedagogical, is moreover ascribed by many divines to the grace of God assisting, and perfect illumina- tion to the grace of God indwelling. Illumination is perfect only when grace dwells in man, and he permits his will to be santified by it, in which case progress is made from it to sanctification. [17] Imperfect and pedagogical illumination is also not natural, but supernatural; (id., 831): "because (a) it proceeds from the light of a special revelation; (b) it is obtained by us through a supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit; (c) it is occupied with the mysteries of faith; (d) and is divinely designed for a spiritual end. We cannot but particularly notice that divines, truly orthodox, have never divided illumination into natural and supernatural." PARA. 46. Regeneration and Conversion. These are the terms descriptive of the state of one who has really entered into the new kingdom of grace. Both are used in the Holy Scriptures, sometimes in a wider, at others in a narrower sense, and often interchangeably. In the former case they describe the entire state of acceptance of the pardoned sinner, with all the moral powers which are now at his com- mand, and embrace, therefore, in them justification and sanc- tification; in the latter case, in which indeed they do not directly exclude one another, but yet are also not exactly iden- tical, they describe simply the internal change which has taken place in the entire condition of man, without includ- ing the power to lead a holy life. The two conceptions may be distinguished thus, that by regeneration is understood only the actual presence of the new spiritual life, as it is effected in man by the operation of the Holy Spirit; by conversion, the conditions also which must be performed on the part of man in order that he may attain such a spiritual life. [1] As thus the two expressions diverge in a certain sense, they may also be considered separately. --------------End of Page 458-------------------------------- I. "REGENERATION is the act of grace by which the Holy Spirit gives the sinner saving faith, that, his sins being pardoned, he may become a son of God and an heir of eternal life. [2] HOLL. (876): i.e., that work by which God overcomes the spiritual blindness of the natural man, and his spiritual inability to believe in the gracious plan of salvation, and creates in him the power of exercising faith. [3] There takes place, therefore, in the regeneration of man, a change [4] which consists in this, that, instead of the former blindness in spiritual things, there is spiritual knowledge; in place of un- belief there is faith, so that this entirely altered spiritual con- dition of man is represented figuratively by the term, a new birth, and the regenerate man as a new creature. [5] As regeneration is conditioned by the conduct of man in re- gard to the influence exerted upon him, it will take place at once, or gradually, as man's resistance is greater or less. The former takes place with children, in whom there is no other resistance than that which dwells in every natural man, which, however, is overcome by the Holy Ghost, operating in Baptism; the latter occurs with all adults, in the case of whom resistance only gradually disappears. [6] But the operation of the Holy Spirit is always, however, efficacious, in such a sense that on God's part all the energies which are needed to enable man to believe and lead a spiritual life are readily and altogether sufficiently offered to him; but this grace is not compulsory, therefore not irresistible, for its acceptance depends on the free will of man. [7] Therefore regeneration is likewise on the part of God indeed perfect, since He endeavors to effect regeneration perfectly on man, and to transform him into an entirely new creature; on the side of man, however, only more or less perfect as he permits this grace of the Holy Spirit to be entirely or only partially effica- cious in him. [8] It depends, too, upon the fidelity of man, whether he will persevere in the new condition of regeneration or not, and thus regeneration is also amissible; but, at the same time, it is re- coverable by the grace of God, for the way of return to the state of regeneration, so long as life lasts, is open to him who has fallen from grace. [9] --------------End of Page 459------------------------------------- II. CONVERSION.--There is no other way of attaining to faith and a spiritual life than by God's turning man from sin to Himself, and "conversion is thus the act by which the Holy Spirit is said to convert the sinner, and the sinner is said to be converted." (HOLL. 852). [10] Conversion, then, is to be called a work of God, so far as this change cannot at all be produced without the agency of divine grace. So far, however, as this change cannot occur without an internal movement in man, which is conditioned by his own will, conversion in another point of view can be regarded as proceeding from man. Conversion is accordingly distinguished as transitive and intransitive. [11] In the latter sense it is identical with repentance, a movement of the mind excited by the converting and regenerating grace of the Holy Sprit, by which the sinner detests with unaffected sorrow his sins recognized from the divine Law, and at the same time lays hold by true faith of the satisfaction and merit of the Mediator Christ and the mercy of God obtained thereby and promised in the Gospel, and applies it to himself that, having freely obtained the pardon of his sins, he may be eternally saved." (HOLL. 1141.) The acts preceding conversion are more particularly the following: 1. The unconverted and unregenerate man being from his birth under the dominion of sin and his sinful propensities, manifesting themselves boldly in actual sins, the first act of grace aims to divert him from this state of sin, and, with this end in view, to beget in him real pain for past sins, and a de- sire to be freed from the dominion which sin has exercised over him, viz., contrition ("a serious and holy sorrow of heart, leading the sinner to hate the sins made known to him by the Law of God.") [12] 2. The second act of divine grace is this, that it drives man, alarmed on account of his sins, to take refuge in the merit of Christ, which covers his sins and is accounted as his merit; [13] so that conversion, which commences in contrition, is fin- ished in faith. The formeer is produced by the preaching of the Law, the latter by the preaching of the Gospel. [14] From what has been said, it follows that conversion, like re- ------------End of Page 460------------------------------------- generation, does not take place at once, but is brought about by repeated acts of one and the same grace. [15] This grace is variously designated, as it produces the beginning or the pro- gress of conversion, and as it is efficacious with or without human co-operation. [16] In the beginning of conversion man is thus altogether passsive; [17] in the further progress of it, however, in so far active as the powers produced by grace must in it be operative. [18] But as these powers are called forth by grace, and man can do nothing at all by his natural powers, conversion is therefore to be considered as produced by grace alone. [19] It is equally true of conversion as of re- generation, that it is indeed efficacious, but not irresistible; of both it is true that the impulsive internal cause is the mercy of God, the impulsive external or meritorious cause is Christ's merit. [1] HOLL. alone deviates from this distinction, who first treats of conversion, then of regeneration, and so separates them that the form of conversion strictly taken consists in the excitation of con- trition, the form of regeneration in the donation of faith. (856): "As it is one act of applying grace by which God produces contri- tion, and another act of grace by which He imparts in the contrite sinner a confidence that relies on Christ's merit; so the former act of grace is called conversion (taken in the strictest sense), and the latter act is called regeneration. Contrition is the effect of converting grace, faith is the effect of regenerating grace. Penitence, taken in a wide sense, is the effect of both acts of grace, viz., conversion and regeneration conspiring to accomplish one end." In this way, doubtless, the one idea is clearly distinguished from the other; but nevertheless HOLL. is not able, in its further discussion, to retain this distinction, and is compelled to connect faith with conversion. Most of the other divines pursue the order of our text, and desire, in treating the two aspects separately, rather to bring out two phases of one and the same conception than to keep them altogether apart from each other. Ordinarily this alone is given as the difference: "The two differ: (1) in regard to the subjects; regeneration per- tains to adults and children; conversion properly to adults, as children cannot properly be said to be converted; (2) in regard to the means: regeneration is effected by the Word and Sacraments; conversion by the Word alone." [2] BR. (532): "Regeneration is an action of God, by which He endows man, destitute of spiritual strength, but not obstinately resisting, out of His mere grace for Christ's sake, by means of the -----------------End of Page 461------------------------------------ Word and Baptism, on the part of the intellect and the will, with spiritual powers to believe in Christ, and thus to commence a spiritual life; or, He produces these in him in order that he may attain justification, renovation, and eternal salvation." This is regeneration in the stricter sense, as it is set forth in Ga. 2:20; John 1:13; 1 John 5:1. From this, regeneration in the more comprehensive sense is distinguished." QUEN. (III, 477): "It is taken in the wide sense for the restitution of the spiritual life in general; and in this way regeneration comprehends under it, also, justification and the renovation which follows it, in which sense the FORM. CONC. (III, 19) also uses it. It is taken strictly for re- mission of sins or justification, in Gal. 3:11, in which sense the FORM. CONC. states it to be very frequently used in the AP. CONF.; or for renovation, as it shows it to be frequently used by Luther." FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., III, 19 and following): "The term re- generation is sometimes taken as embracing both the remission of sins and the subsequent renovation which the holy Sprit pro- duuces in those who are justified by faith; and it sometimes signifies nothing more than the remission of sins, and adoption as sons of God. In this last sense the word is very frequently used in the AP. CONF.; for instance, when it is said, justification is regenerra- tion. But Paul, too, uses these terms with discrimination (Tit. 3: 5). Moreover, the term vivification is sometimes so used as to denote remission of sins. For when a human being is justified by faith, that is in fact a regeneration, because he becomes from a son of wrath a son of God, and in this way is transferred from death to life. Hence, likewise, regeneration is often used for sanctification and renovation (which are subsequent to justification)." [3] Therefore QUEN. (III, 482): "The point from which it pro- ceeds generically is the death of sin, not taken in its entirety (holikos), as it introduces, in addtion to a privation of powers of believing, likewise a deficiency of strength for holy living, together with the dominion and guilt of sin; but taken partially (merikos), so far as it affirms the want of the power of savingly knowing and embracing the justifying object. In particular, on the side of the intellect, the starting-point is the great blindness and multiform debility in re- gard to the saving knowledge of the saving object, Eph. 5:8; John 1:5; 1 Cor. 2:14. On the part of the will, the like incapacity of embracing savingly the good offered in the Gospel, Rom. 8:7. Its goal is, generally speaking, a spiritual life, not viewed in its total- ity, as including, besides the attainment of the powers of believ- ing, immunity from the dominion and guilt of sin; but taken par- tially, so far as it denotes the supernatural powers imparted for the --------------------End of Page 462------------------------------------- exercise of faith. In particular on the part of the intellect, it is both a spiritual capacity of the mind savingly to know the object which brings salvation, 2 Cor. 4:6, and then an actual saving knowledge of it; on the part of the will, a confident reclining of the heart on the known good, Rom. 6:11." HOLL. remarks fur- ther (881): "We discuss now principally the regeneration of the intellect and will of adult sinners; the regeneration of the intellect of children is somewhat more difficult of comprehension. But we do not doubt that the intellect of infants in regeneration is imbued with a saving knowledge of God by the Holy Spirit in Baptism, and their will is endowed with confidence in Christ. We agree here with the views of CHMN. in Ex. c. Trid.: `Although we do not sufficiently understand, and cannot explain, what the action and operation of the Holy Spirit is in infants who are baptized; yet that it exists and is effected through the Word of God, is certain. We call that action and operation of the Holy Spirit in infants faith, and assert that infants believe. For the means or organ, by which the kingdom of God offered in the Word and Sacraments is re- ceived, the Scripture calls faith, and it says that believers receive the kingdom of God. And indeed (Mark 10:15) Christ affirms that adults receive the kingdom of heaven as infants receive it.' The form of regeneration consists, according to this, `in the gift of spiritual life; that is, in the bestowment of the power of believing, and of saving faith; or, in the illumination of our mind, and the production of confidence in our heart;' or, as it is otherwise ex- pressed, `in the gift itself of faith.'" [4] But this spiritual change is not a substantial one (for there is not another substance of intellect and will introduced by regenera- tion, the pre-existing natural substance having been destroyed), but an accidental one (introducing new qualities into the intellect and will of man, not merely enlightening and exciting the pre- existing). QUEN. (III, 484): "As in the resurrection of the body the flesh, numerically the same which we have borne, shall be reproduced, furnished, however, with different properties; so, in regeneration, the same natural substance of our body remains, the properties only being changed. Regeneration does not destroy nature, but perfects and directs it; it does not change it so that it ceases to be nature. The antithesis is (a) that of the Fanatics, who assert that by regeneration the substance of the former body is de- stroyed, and, the same soul remaining, a new body is given differ- ing essentially from the former; (b) that of the Flacians, who assert that God, in regeneration and conversion, so creates a new heart and a new man, that the substance and essence of the old Adam, ---------------End of Page 463----------------------------------- and particularly the rational soul, is entirely destroyed, and a new essence of soul is created from nothing." [5] QUEN. (III, 485): "`A new man' and `new creature,' 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15, on account of the new spiritual strength imparted in regeneration and renovation, by which the image of God is repaired, consisting in the knowledge of God, Col. 3:10, in righteousness and true holiness, Eph. 4:24." Expressions of similar import are, quickening, Eph. 2:5; raising again, Eph. 2: 6. But it is to be noticed particularly that all these expressions are used only figuratively, to which fact special attention is called in opposition to the Mystics. Thus, by HOLL. (890): "Literally speaking, neither Christ is born in us, nor is there a new man in us, nor by the gift of regeneration is there flesh produced of our flesh." [6] HOLL. (885): "The regeneration of infants is instantaneous, but the ordinary regeneration of adults is successive. In infants, as there is not an earnest and obstinate resistance, the grace of the Holy Spirit accompanying Baptism breaks and restrains their natural resistance that it may not impede regeneration; wherefore, their regeneration takes place instantaneously. In the regenera- tion of adults there are many difficulties to be removed by care, and illumination and instruction extended over a long time are to be afforded from the divine Word, until a full faith is enkindled in the mind." QUEN. (III, 483): "Regeneration is successive, not always instantaneous, but gradual and increasing; and although the quickening takes place in the moment in which faith is produced in us, and Christ, the true sun of righteousness, arises in our hearts, yet the spiritual life displays itself in successive acts." BR. (530): "Nor is there any contradiction to this in the name, regeneration, whose force and signification are to be estimated from the analogy of generation, which takes place, indeed, in an instant; for that comparison must not be extended too far.... Those who say that regeneration is instantaneous, seem to undertstand by it either justification or the conferring of the beginning of faith as to the first holy thought and pious desire." [7] HOLL. (885): "Regeneration is the action of the Holy Spirit, efficacious and sufficient to produce faith, but it is not irresistible (Acts 18:5, 6)." QUEN. (III, 483): "The regenerat- ing grace of God is always efficacious in itself, although it does not always proceed to the second act, on account of the resistance of the subject to be regenerated. Its efficacy is limited and mediated, exerting itself through the mediation of the Word and Sacrament; ---------------End of Page 464--------------------------------------- not physical, such as exists in medicine, but hyperphysical, illus- trated, however, in the Scriptures by physcial actions, illumina- tion, generation, the sowing of seed, irrigation," etc. [8] QUEN. (III, 483): "Regeneration on the part of God re- generating is perfect, and so does not admit of a greater and less any more than carnal generation; on the part of men receiving, it is imperfect (because sinners imperfectly receive the influence of the Hoy Spirit), because moral evil is always near them, Rom. 7: 23; because sin still dwells in them, verses 17, 18; and because faith can grow and increase in them." [9] HOLL. (886): "The grace of regeneration is lost when sins subversive of conscience are deliberately committed (1 Tim. 1:19). But regeneration lost may be recovered by the penitent (Gal. 4: 19). Men regenerate, aided by the preserving grace of God, should be carefully on their guard, lest, by the malicious repetition of sin, they do injury to conscience; but if, nevertheless, they are overcome by the machinations of the devil, the enticements of the world, and the suggestions of the flesh, and fall three or four times, or oftener, into mortal sin, they need not at all doubt of the converting and regenerating grace of God. (Exqmples in Ex. 4:24; 32; Numb. 20:12; 12:1, 2; 2 Sam. 11:4, 15; 24:1; comp. 1 Chron. 21:8.)" [10] QUEN. (III, 500): "Conversion is the action of the apply ing grace of the Holy Spirit, whereby, together with the Father and Son, of absolutely pure grace, founded in the merit of Christ, through the preaching of the Word, He transfers the adult spirit- ually dead from his state of sin to a state of faith, successively as to the preparatory acts, but in an instant as to the ultimate act, by a divine and supernatural but resistible power, so that, repent- ing, he may obtain by faith the remission of his sins, and partake of eternal salvation." Conversion may here be considered in a broader or narrower sense. QUEN. (III, 489): "Conversion is used either in a wide sense as embracing not only transfer from a state of sin to one of faith, but likewise justification and renovation, and the continuation of this new state in its entire extent, Acts 26:20." Thus the FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., II, 70): "This is most certain, that in true conversion a change, renovation, and movement ought to take place in the intellect, in the will and heart of man, that the mind of man may clearly recognize his sins, may fear the anger of God, may turn himself from sin, may recogniize and appropriate the promise of grace in Christ, may be occupied with devout thoughts, may form good purposes, and may display diligence in moral im- --------------End of Page 465-------------------------------------- provement and strive against the flesh;" to which, however, HOLL. remarks (854): "Many divines abstain from this more extended sense of conversion, since from it error and confusion may easily enter into incautious minds, for in this way distinct acts of grace are united under one term; or, in a narrow sense, as distinguished from justification and renovation, and this is its usage in this place." HOLL. (854) distinguishes still further: "Conversion taken in a special sense, as the act of grace by which the Holy Spirit excites in the sinner sincere grief for his sins, by the word of the Law, and enkindles true faith in Christ by the word of the Gospel, that he may obtain remission of sins and eternal salvation;" and (in accordance with what was said under the head of Regeneration, note 1), "Conversion in the most special sense, as the act of grace by which the Holy Spirit restrains, subdues, and breaks the will and heart of the sinner in the midst of his sins, that he may detest his sins with grief of mind and thus be prepared for receiving faith in Christ." [11] BR. (533): "The word conversion is taken in a double sense in the Scriptures, inasmuch as at one time God is said to convert man, and at another man is said to convert himself, although as to the thing itself the action is one and the same." The first is called "transitive conversion, because it does not termi- nate in God who is the agent, but passes from Him to another subject, to wit, to the sinner," and is distinguished as "active, so far as it proceeds from God, and as passive, so far as it is received by man, Jer. 31:18." HOLL. (853). The other is called intran- sitive conversion. BR. (534): "Although the acts by which the sinner is said to convert himself depend for their efficacy upon the Holy Spirit, yet because they are the acts of the intellect and will, and do not pass from the potencies whose acts they are into another subject, but are terminated in the potencies themselves, in this re- spect they are classified with immanent or intransitive acts." HOLL. (854): "Conversion (intransitive) is the goal and effect of transitive conversion, and is the penitence by which the sinner is said to convert himself by means of the strength imparted by con- verting grace, and passively received. In regard to intransitive conversion, Acts 3:19. For which reason the sinner, repenting, converts himself not by his native, but by imparted powers." HOLL. remarks, finally (853): "As we are here employed in unfolding the acts of divine grace applying salvation, it easily appears that we are not designedly taking into consideration the intransitive conversion, or the repentance of the sinner." ---------------End of Page 466---------------------------------------- [12] HOLL. (868): "The starting-point is sin, both actual sins, so far as, after they are committed, they remain morally as if rati- fied or not retracted; and habitual, so far as they not only imply the want of that habitual perfection which ought to exist, but like- wise the propensity to all the evils which are the fountain and cause of actual sins." BR. (539): "That actual sins may be abolished by conversion, it is necessary first, that they should be retracted by the sinner, and that they be recognized by the intellect, not only with the speculative judgment that they are truly sins, but likewise with the practical, that efforts are to be made for the abolition of sins, and circumspection employed in regard to the mode and means by which they may be abolished; on the side of the will, efficacious dissatisfaction with sins, or a detestation of them united with grief, is required." (543): "Converrsion tends to abolish habitual sins by the same acts by which it tends to abolish actual sins; yet in such a way, that they should be abol- ished or expelled not only morally, but physically* and really-- if not thoroughly, yet relatively and as to their dominion." QUEN. (III, 492) more exactly: "The starting-point in general is the state of sin, Eph. 2:1, sq., and this viewed not in its totality, as it includes also the guilt and dominion of sin, but taken partially, in so far as it expresses a deficiency of strength to return to God by repentance, united with obstinate depravity." GRH. (VI, 252): "Contrition embraces (1) the true knowledge of sin; (2) the sense of the divine anger against sins; (3) anguish and fear of conscience; (4) true humiliation before God; (5) frank confession of sin; (6) the serious hatred and detestation of sin. It is, however, to be observed in this place: (1) although true contrition is required in all true and saving repentance, yet there are grades of contrition, as the terrors and anguish are not equal in all, but in some they are greater and in others less; (2) the promise of the remission of sins does not depend upon the dignity and quantity of our contrition, but alone upon the merit of Christ.... (3) the knowledge of sin never becomes so perfect that it embraces specifically the knowledge of all sins." [13] BR. (541): "It is necessary, moreover, that the mind should aim at the abolition of actual sins, both with respect to the offense against God and the obligation of sinners to make satisfaction to God, which indeed can be effected soley by faith in Christ, the Mediator, and in His merit and satisfaction for our sins; and, when faith lays hold of this, the mind turns to God, ------------------------------------------------------------------- *[BR. explains physically: "So far as conditions of absence or habits are expelled from their subjects."] -----------------End of Page 467------------------------------------- who, although offended with our sins, yet embraces us in His love and grace, and is now fully reconciled by the satisfaction of Christ. The end to be accomplished is faith in Christ, by which the sinner is reconciled to God, who is offended by his sins." HOLL. (869): "The proximate end is contrition; the remote, faith in Christ." In addition, the observation (871): "Contrition is not the posi- tive or causal means of enkindling faith, but is ony the privative means, by which the incapacity of the subject and the obstacles which otherwise would impede the enkindling of faith are removed. Therefore faith in Christ is the remote end of conversion, because the Holy Spirit, producing contrition by the Law, proposes to prepare the heart for the excitation in it of saving faith by the Gospel. When I call it remote, I do not wish that any one should suppose that faith is to be far removed or separated from contrition, for contrition in the discourses of Christ is united with faith by the closest tie, (Mark 1:15; Acts 2:38; 2 Cor. 7:10); but thereby it is only indicated that the light of faith arises not through conversion, by means of the Law, but from another quarter, through regeneration by means of the Gospel. (1 Pet. 1: 23; James 1:18.)" [14] AP. CONF. (V, 28): "We maintain that repentance con- sists of two parts, viz., contrition and faith." GRH. (VI, 234): "The number of leading divisions of the heavenly doctrine, by the ministry of which the Holy Spirit proclaims true and saving repentance and produces it in the hearts of men, is the same as the number of essential parts of repentance. There are now two gen- eral classes of heavenly doctrine by which the Holy Spirit preaches and produces repentance, viz., the Law and the Gospel. There- fore there are two essential parts of repentance. The connection of the major premise is plain, because each of these two doctrines produces its peculiar and proper effect in converting man; these two effects, although different from each other, nevertheless con- cur harmoniously to the production of the one common end of re- pentance. The Law produces pain, by manifesting the atrocity of sin and the anger of God against it, and accusing man on account of his transgression. The Gospel offers to terrified and contrite man Christ, the Mediator, who died on the altar of the cross for our sins." The AP. CONF. adds further (V, 28): "If any one desire to add a third (part), namely, fruits worthy of repentance, that is, a change of the whole life and conduct for the better, we will not oppose;" and MEL. (Loc. c. Th., II, 4): "The parts are contrition and faith. New obedience ought necessarily then to follow; if any one desire to call this a third part, I have no objection." From --------------End of Page 468--------------------------------------- the time of GRH. (VI, 425) it was more explicitly stated: "That, properly and accurately speaking, good works do not constitute a part of repentance." HOLL. (1147): "New obedience is not a part but an effect of repentance." But (1148): "New obedience inseparably follow repentance, and cannot be severed from it even in the case of the dying." With reference to the Roman Catholic distinction between contrition and attrition, the AP. CONF. (V, 29) says: "From contrition we exclude those idle and endless dis- putes, as to when we grieve over our sins from love to God and when from fear of punishment." The later divines discuss more particularly the two parts of con- version, contrition and faith, under the head of penitence as in- transitive conversion, which generally folllows the doctrine of the Sacraments. As the contents are similar and the difference only this, that transitive conversion is considered the operation of God, repentance, that is, intransitive conversion, as the movement in- wardly taking place in man as the consequence of this operation, we therefore unite both articles into one. The Symbolical Books, likewise, and the earlier divines, treat of this subject only as one topic, viz., under the head of repentance. Contrition is defined by the later divines as "the first act of repentance by which the sinner, struck by the lightning of the Law, aroused by the sense of divine anger on account of the sins that he has committed, is sorry after a godly sort, is thoroughly alarmed, and earnestly de- tests his sins. Ps. 51:4; Jer. 3:13; Ps. 6:1; 38: 1, 3, 4, 6." Faith, as "the second penitential act, by which the sinner, ren- dered contrite by the wounds of his conscience, seeks a remedy from the wounds of Jesus Christ, exhibited in the Gospel, confi- dently appropriating them to himself as an individual (QUEN., III, 581)." As "the requisites of true contrition" are cited (HOLL., 1152): "antecedently, the knowledge of sin, not only theoretical but likewise practical; formally, an efficacious displeasure or hatred of sin, united with serious grief on account of it." The "marks of true contrition" are (1155), "1, internal: (a) the renun- ciation of the evil purpose and the omission of the intended sin; (b) a legal and pedagogic desire for a most approved physician or a most beneficent and powerful deliverer, Acts 2:37; 2, external, (probable, but not infallible): which are discovered (a) in the mouth of the sinner (the confession of sin of the entire Church, which takes place ordinarily in public prayers, and also extraordi- narily in public calamities, or of a private person who confesses his sins before God (Ps. 51:5, called by Luther the confession of faith), before the Church (Josh. 7:19, formerly called exomologesis), --------------------End of Page 469---------------------------------- before a minister of the Church (Matt. 3:6), before a neighbor (James 5:16, the confession of love); (b) in the face and external appearance (tears, sackcloth, the sprinking of ashes, smiting of the breast and thigh, rending of garments, lying upon the earth); (c) in outward works (fasting and satisfaction, which is rendered to our injured neighbor or to the Church offended by a public scandal)." Concerning Confession it is said: "The private confes- sion of sins before a priest to obtain forgiveness has no sure divine warrant, neither is the enumeration of all and each of the trans- gressions, with the circumstances modifying or aggravating them, and the communication of them to the ears of a priest, necessary or possible (QUEN., III, 601)." In regard to satisfaction, how- ever, which the Catholics define as prayer, fasting, and alms, and of which they say that they are a payment of punishment still to a large extent due, although the guilt has already been pardoned, this is applicable: "After remission of sin no punishment, strictly speaking, pertains to the converted and justified; but sometimes there remains a paternal chastisement and remedial affliction." Upon both comp. AP. CONF., Art. VI, concerning Confession and Satisfaction. [The term "auricular," as applied to confession, is used in two senses. As a confession made orally, and received by the ear of the confessor, it is applicable to Lutheran confession. But as the term is ordinarily used for the compulsory enumeration of details by the Romish Church, our Lutheran theologians most emphatic- ally repudiate it. "It would, manifestly be a logomachy, were it to be asserted that the kind of confession here understood is not auricular. In the conferences at Augsburg in 1530, an agreement had so far been reached that the controversy on this point might have been regarded as ended (see Coelestine's History, PARA. IIII, p 55). But it is well known that the Council of Trent silently re- ceded from the concessions previously made by the Catholic theo- logians, prescribed the necessity of the confession of all sins (even of thoughts), and declared it godless to deny the possibility of the complete confession of all sins, or to name it spiritual tyranny. It is clear that, in this sense, the Lutherans could not admit of auric- ular confession. They allowed, indeed, a confession of sins entering into details, and gave this the preference above a merely general or summary confession; yet for this they applied no constraint, but left it to the conscience of everyone, whether he should confess individual sins to his pastor, or be satisfied with the general decla- ration that he was a sinner, and desired forgiveness." See "Apol- ogy," ut supra, Augusti's Christliche Archaelogie, III, 93 sq.] ----------------End of Page 470----------------------------------- [15] CHMN. (Loc. Th., I, 199): "Conversion or renovation is not a change that is accomplished and perfected always in a single moment in all its parts, but it has its beginnings and its advances, through which, in great weakness, it is perfected. It is not, there- fore, to be understood that I am to wait, with a secure and indolent will, until renovation or conversion have been accomplished, accord- ing to the stages already described, by the influence of the Holy Spirit, or without any movement on my part. Nor can it be shown with mathematical accuracy where the liberated will begin to act." [16] BR. (563): "That divine operation by which conversion is produced in man by the Law and the Gospel is usually called grace." This one and the same grace is usually distinguished as prevenient, operating, and co-operating, though even here the dis- tinctions are not always uniform. BR. (563). "By prevenient grace is understood the divine inspiration of the first holy thought and godly desire. This grace is called prevenient, because it is prior to our deliberate consent, or because in this way the will of the person to be converted is anticipated. Operating grace is that which directly follows the commencement of conversion and has reference to its continuance; by which it comes to pass that man by an effort, although weak, inclines to Christ, the Mediator, and the promises of gratuitous pardon for Christ's sake, and resists doubts. According to others, indeed, operating grace is referred to the commencement of conversion, and coincides with prevenient and exciting grace as to the effect, and is called operating because without us and without our free consent it operates in us. Co- operating grace is that operation which aids and strengthens or corroborates the intellect already in some measure assenting to the divine promises, and the will trusting in Christ, and so operates with the will, which concurs by the yet weak powers before re- ceived. By others, again. the co-operating grace of God is described as that by which God concurs with man already converted, in pre- serving the powers conferred upon him, increasing them, and assisting so that his faith may not fail" (in which case co- operating grace is more applicable to santification). QUEN. (III, 494) and others divine into "assisting grace, which acts exterior to man, and indwelling grace, which enters the heart of man and, changing it spiritually, inhabits it." To the former belong "in- cipient or prevenient grace, exciting grace, operating grace, and perfecting grace," of which the first three operate as preparatory acts, but by the latter the act of real conversion is accomplished; indwelling grace occurs only after conversion, in sanctification. "The grace of God acts before conversion, in it, and after it. The -----------------End of Page 471------------------------------------ first is called prevenient, preparative, and exciting; the second, operating and completing, in the first sense; the last, co-operating, assisting, and completing, in the second sense. But grace, effect- ing and completing conversion by means of the Word, produces (1) the knowledge of sin, which is the first stage of conversion; (2) compunction of heart, that there may be detestation of sins committed and grief on their account; (3) the act of faith itself and confidence in Christ, viz., belief in Christ and the embracing of His merit by true faith; which act of faith is immediately fol- lwed by a transfer from a state of wrath to one of grace, which is the final act of conversion, and takes place instantaneously, as it cannot be that a man should be in a state of wrath and of grace, under death and in life, at the same time (497)." [17] BR. (564): "It is properly said that man is merely passive in the commencement of conversion." QUEN. (III, 508) presents the thought more fully thus: "Conversion is taken either in a wide sense, so that it includes also the preparatory acts, and thus man is passive in reference to each act or degree; or in a narrow sense, for the transfer from a state of wrath to one of grace, which is instan- taneous by means of the gift of saving faith, and in which un- doubtedly God alone works, man being subjected to this divine action as a passive object." This statement naturally flows from the doctrine of the state of corruption (compare PARA. 28, Note 8, sq., and FORM. CONC., Sol. Dec., II, 7), and thus an answer is furnished to the question,, "In what way does the will of man act in his conversion?" HUTT., who very thoroughly discusses this question in his Loc. Com., makes this preliminary remark (p. 281): "Occasion for this question is given by the fact that, in the conversion of an unregen- erated man, the change cannot take place unless good actions con- cur and spiritual exercises intervene, such as struggling with the flesh, contending with unbelief, assent to the divine Word, and such like. It has been therefore asked, and is to-day asked, whether these exercises, or even any part of them, can be attri- buted to the power of human ability. But that this question may be rightly answered, it must first be observed, in general, that the conversion of man to God is not always one and the same thing, but may be of two distinct kinds, according to the two distinct subjects who are converted. Some of those who are to be con- verted are altogether beyond the limits of the Church, commonly known as infidels, and such are all they who live without any con- nection with the Church; others, however, live in the midst of the assembly of the called, and were brought into connection with the ----------------End of Page 472------------------------------------ Church by Baptism, and were at one time regenerate, but after- wards fell from the grace of regeneration through sins committed against their conscience. Hence it happens that the conversion of unregenerate unblelievers is one thing, and the conversion of those once regenerated, but now fallen, is another. And there is a great difference between these two kinds of conversion; inasmuch as he who has hitherto been standing in the covenant of divine grace, or, it may be, has yielded to the temptation of the devil and fallen from the grace of God, yet in some measure has received and pos- sessed the first-fruits of the Holy Spirit;, very widely differs from him who for the first time is called and admitted to faith in Christ and the grace of the covenant. The latter are changed from unre- generate to regenerate, from unbelievers to believers. But the con- dition of the lapsed in the Church is such that, although, seduced by the devil, they have become subject to divine wrath and eternal damnation, nevertheless they have not yet altogether fallen from the covenant itself and from the right of adoption of the sons of God, so far as God is concerned; nor do they absolutely fall away from that, unless they persevere to the end in sin. Their conver- sion, then, is nothing else than a return to the use or complete fruition of pristine grace, and this by serious repentance. Beside these two forms of conversion, mention is made, in the schools of the divines, of a third kind also, which is called the repentance or conversion of the standing, i.e., of those who are regenerate, but who, on account of the adhering infirmities and failings of sin and the flesh, are from time to time, as it were, revived through repent- ance; so that their conversion is nothing else than a perpetual mortification of the flesh and a daily struggle between the flesh and the Spirit.... And concerning the two last-mentioned kinds, namely, the conversion of the lapsed and of the standing, there is here no controversy or discussion whatever.... The only question here in dispute is, What can an unbelieving man, hitherto unregenerate, do, by his own strength, in his original conversion? To which we re- ply, that man can do absolutely nothing, not even the very least thing, towards beginning or effecting his conversion; and that the beginning, the progress, and, in short the whole development of his conversion, is to be ascribed altogether and alone to the operation of the Holy Spirit."... Then he continues; "Various difficulties and many questions arise in regard to this purer doctrine of our churches; and, unless these be clearly explained, a very abundant harvest of manifold and very grave errors may arise." "For it is asked (1) Whether, since the Fall, all the powers have been so broken, or rather extinguished, in spiritual matters, that not the ----------------------End of Page 473--------------------------------- leat capability (hikanotes), aptitude, or capacity has remained? In re- gard to this question a very sharp controversy arose among certain divines, some interdicting the words `aptitude' and `capacity' in this connection, and others admitting them; neither party, perhaps, being very dexterous in their explanation. For this strife is easily settled, if we will only reflect that these terms can be taken in a double sense, viz., an acitve and a passive: an active sense, if by aptitude and capacity you understand such an efficient (energetike) faculty, as can enable man to apprehend the grace of conversion offered in the preached Word; a passive sense, on the other hand, if man be described as a susceptible (pathetikos) subject, that is able to receive conversion, or fitted for conversion, which passive capac- ity or aptitude cannot be predicated of a block or a stone. And in this latter sense our sainted Luther ascribes capacity to man, i.e., as having susceptible capacity (dunamis pathetike).... As to this passive capacity, however, there is here no controversy, but only concerning the active capacity, which we so totally deny to unre- generated man, that we do not assign to it even that trifling amount which some are pleased to suggest. But it is inquired (2) Since the will of unregenerate man can do nothing, not even the very least, towards his conversion, what is his attitude, then, in conversion? This question is answered differently by different persons. (a) Some assert that he is merely and purely passive; thus Luther was not horrified at this phrase, for he wrote (Comm. on Psalms): `It is an error, that the free will has any activity in a good work, when we speak of an internal work; for to wish, to believe, to hope, to love, are movements, drawings, and leadings of the divine Word, and a continued purifying and renovation of the mind, and though this passion be not always equally intense, yet it is always a pas- sion [a being wrought upon].'... (b) There are others who answer this question, that man in conversion is like a block. This opinion seems very harsh and horrid to many, especially to the patrons of Synergism. But this way of speaking, properly under- stood, has no inconvenience whatever. For, although man differs greatly from a block, both as to the faculty by which he acts in choosing among things external and subject to reason, and from the fact that conversion cannot take place with a block or a stone as it can with man, however corrupt; yet, nevertheless, if that dunamis, power, or faculty be considered, by which conversion can be begun and completed, there certainly is in this respect no differ- ence whatever between man and a block, for man can do nothing more by his own powers towards his conversion than a block, but is as clay in the hands of the potter.... Why? Because in this -------------------End of Page 474------------------------------- respect the condition of a block is even better than that of man; for, as it lacks the power of willing, so it is also desititute of sin and wickedness, which cling to the unregenerate man." ... But even the very fact, that man in conversion is only purely passive, is of itself a work of grace; for naturally man resists it. CAL. (X, 15): "Unregenerate man has, indeed, a passive power, and so a certain aptitude, which you should, however, more correctly call a power of non-resistance, or an obediential power, with respect to his conversion; nevertheless, the Holy Spirit must produce even this non-resistance in us, since the nature of man, on account of congenital depraved concupiscence, is in itself hostile to the Holy Spirit, and is not able to refrain from resisting." Here the question, however, arises: How then can conversion be effected in man otherwise than against his will or without his knowledge? Both these inferences are rejected. HUTT. (Loc. Com., 284): "There have been those who asserted that the will of unregenerate man in conversion is in a hostile attitude, so that the Holy Spirit effects conversion by violent drawings, or by a kind of force, in those who are unwilling and resisting. This opinion has elements of both truth and falsehood in it. For it is true that the natural man can do nothing of himself but resist the Holy Spirit.... Thus it is also true, that some have been converted when they were violently raging against God. But what is hence inferred is most false, viz., that they were converted while repug- nant and reluctant. For it is most certain that they in whom this resistance does not cease never are converted to God.... Others answer, that man in conversion not only does nothing, but is con- verted while unconcerned and not knowing what is being done with him. This opinion manifestly savors of Enthusiasm.... For, although unregenerate man cannot know of himself and of his own powers what is being done with him, yet the Holy Spirit removes this stupor and illuminates his mind, so that now he knows what is being done with him and yields his consent to the Holy Spirit." The Word of God is designated as the means which God employs for conversion, and to the unregenerate noth- ing more is ascribed than the power to hear or to read this Word of God. FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., II, 53): "This Word of God man, while yet unregenerate, can hear with his outward ears or read.... Through this means or instrument, namely, the preaching and hearing of His Word, God operates, softens our hearts, and draws man, so that through the preaching of the Law he recognizes both his sins and the wrath of God, and experiences true terrors and contrition in his heart. And through the annunci- -----------------End of Page 475---------------------------------- ation of, and meditation upon the Gospel... the little spark of faith is enkindled in his heart...and in this way the Holy Sprit, who does all these things, is sent into the heart." HUTT. (Loc. Com., 285): "In every conversion, the Word of God must intervene as the organ, or, as the Fathers said, as the vehicle of the Holy Spirit. Not that new emotions are impressed upon those who are to be converted, as a seal upon wax; nor is this conversion something irrational, as when Balaam's ass spoke, Numb. 22:28; nor is it anything violent, as when a stone is hurled; nor is it anything enthusiastical, as where the professedly inspired (who are led astray by the devil) utter oracles, or when many things take place with the possessed, without the applica- tion of the mind and will. But the beginning of every conversion is made through the ministry of the Word; to this men must give place, and they must admit the Word that is heard, if any con- version at all is to occur. Now, although, indeed, man, not yet regeenerate, can hear and read the Word of God, can discuss it at length, can receive through it a kind of historical faith, not less than the devils themselves, as James testifies, 2:19; yet he cannot in any way embrace or understnd the Word of salvation, since it is foolishness unto him, unless the illumination of the Holy Spirit be added--so far is he from being able in any way to accomplish the matter of his salvation of his own accord, or even to make a beginning of it. But, as the ancients said, those efforts are fruit- less if they be not aided by grace; yea, they are absolutely of no account, unless they be divinely excited: but the Holy Spirit ex- cites good emotions when by His grace He inspires godly thoughts and anticipates man by instilling the emotion of a good purpose. Hence, the beginning and the whole operation of conversion is altogether and entirely to be ascribed to the Holy Spirit alone, who, in man that hears the Word, is not idle, but moves and impels the will, so that from the very beginning of conversion it fluctuates and inclines and begins to struggle with the flesh, until from being hostile it yields assent, i.e., from being enslaved it becomes free; from being unwilling it becomes willing; so that now to will is present with man, and he delights in the Law of the Lord, not by constraint or unwillingly, but willingly, Rom. 7:18, 22; Philem. v 14." By these statements we still do not, indeed, ascertain clearly enough, whether conversion can be effected in any person, otherwise than without his will; whether, therefore, an excuse may be framed for him who is not converted. And yet we are warranted so to interpret what has already been cited, that, according to the conception of these theologians, the Word of God, -----------End of Page 476----------------------------------------- even where it is heard only outwardly, begets, through a gracious influence, no doubt irresistible, not indeed at once conversion itself, but still that freedom of the will which makes it possible for the inidividual not only to resist grace, as he heretofore always did, but now also to let it operate in him. Thus God still remains the sole, efficient cause of conversion; this proceeds, however, thence- forth, no longer against and without the will of man. Thus, at least, the later theologians express themselves. They assume a prevenient grace, which produces unavoidable good emotions in man. QUEN. (III, 513): "We grant that man, aroused at first by prevenient grace, is so affected by the preaching of the Word, that he cannot escape the presence of God, and receives an inward impulse; nevertheless it does not follow hence, nor is it true, if the first movement of prevenient grace be unavoidable, that, there- fore, its issue, viz., conversion itself, is unavoidable, and that we are irresistibly converted. For, though man cannot prevent this first movement from taking place, he still had the liberty of resisting in this first movement itself, as he has also in the second and third (though not indifferently, i.e., equally, to be converted and not to be converted; for the ability of a man already influenced by prevenient grace inclines rather to the latter than to the former), and he can, through a stubborn will, impede prevenient grace, repel it, and by resisting it prevent his own conversion." [CHMN. Loci Theol., 186: "For Saul had the Word of God, and the good Spirit of God led him. But since he interposed a contrary act of his will, the Holy Spirit departed from him, 1 Sam. 16:14. So Matt. 23:37."] And HOLL. (873): "When man lies dead in sins, lives along securely, never thinking about his conversion, God, most merciful, comes to him anticipatingly, and by means of the Word, either heard or read or retained in his mind, thereupon excites good emotions in his mind which the divines call unavoidable, because he cannot evade their presence and perception; which also, in a certain way, can be called irresistible, as to their origin and their perception, because the sinner is in no way able to oppose himself to the excitation of them by the Word, or to his own perception of them, but can only withhold his acquiescence in them. `The first emotionss,' says J. Musaeus, `can be called irresistible, so far as they precede our thinking, so that it is not in our power to pre- vent them from arising; although, after they have arisen, they can be resisted, so as not to take root, and they can be hindered or altogether suffocated.'" [18] FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., II, 65): "It follows, as soon as the Holy Spirit, through the Word and Sacraments, has begun ------------------------End of Page 477-------------------------- His work of regeneration and renovation in us, that we then can and should truly co-operate through the power of the Holy Spirit, although much infirmity is joined therewith. But this fact, that we co-operate, does not arise from our carnal and natural powers, but from those new powers and gifts which the Holy Spirit begins in us in conversion." CHMN. (Loc. Theol., I, 199): "No one can show the mathematical point, in which the liberated will be- gins to act. When prevenient grace, i.e., the first beginnings of faith and conversion, are given to man, at once there begins the struggle of the flesh and the Spirit, and it is manifest that this struggle cannot occur without the movement of our will. For the Holy Spirit struggled in Moses against his flesh, while yet living, far other wise than Michael contended with the devil for the dead body of Moses. Thus at first the desire is very obscure, the assent very languid, the obedience very feeble; and these gifts should increase. They increase in us, however, not as a block of wood is carried along by a violent impulse, or as the lilies grow without having to labor or care; but by effort, struggling, seeking, pray- ing, knocking, and this not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, Luke 19:13; Matt. 25:26; 2 Tim. 1:6. This is, then, the im- port of what has been taught concerning prevenient, preparatory, and operating grace, that not our part is the first in conversion, but that God anticipates us with the Word and the divine afflatus, moving and impelling the will. But, after this emotion of the will, divinely occasioned, the human will is not purely passive, but, moved and assisted by the Holy Sp[irit, does not resist, but assents, and becomes a co-worker (sunergos) with God." [CHMN. continues: "Augustine has presented an excellent example in his own conversion, in which we see a living answer to this question, how admidst the hidden sparks and feeble beginnings of prevenient grace, the will is not inactive, but the strife between the flesh and the Spirit begins. For questions of this character should be de- cided from individual cases; they are best known, not from idle disputations, nor from the examples of others, but from personal experience, as perceived in the serious exercises of our own re- pentance. But as many live, without any exercise of faith or prayer, they collect many inexplicable things." The passages cited from Augustine are those of his "Confessions," that give the history of his conversion. "I quote these words of Augustine, because from this example the matter can be better understood than from many arguments."]* ------------------------------------------------------------------- [*See a translation of the entire argument of Chemnitz in Evangelical Review (Gettysburg) for 1867. Vol. xviii. 536 sqq.] ----------------End of Page 478--------------------------------------- [19] QUEN. (III, 498): "The conversion of man is the action of divine grace alone operating, and is accomplished by the same infinite power by which God creates anything from nothing and raises from the dead; and it is, moreover, effected through the means of the Word, which has that supernatural and divine power inherent in it, and which it exerts in the conversion of man, Eph. 1:17, 19; Phil. 2:13; John 15:4, 5; Col. 1:12, 13; 2:12, 13." The question, "Whether conversion, once begun in man by the power of the Holy Spirit, afterwards is perfected and preserved by the powers of human nature alone?" is answered in the negative. HUTT. (Loc. Com., 286): "For, neither by this operation of the Holy Spirit is corrupt nature so restored, as to have it in its power to change itself for the better, or to no longer need the aid of the Holy Spirit, but be able to stand in grace by its own power, and to persevere unto the end. But all these things, no less than the beginning of conversion, are to be ascribed to the Holy Spirit, who works in us not only to will, but also to do, and who consummates and perfects the good that He begins in us, and by His own power guards and preserves the regenerate unto the end, Phil. 1:6; 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:5; 5:10." And the statement is firmly maintained that the causes of our con- version are only two, HUTT. (Loc. Com., 284): "Again, the theo- logians differ widely in their views, some holding that there are only two, viz., the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, and others three, adding to those already mentioned also a third, namely, the will of man.; which divergence has occasioned great commotions in the Church of God. This strife, however, it seems could be readily controlled and quieted, if we would accurately distinguish between the two kinds of men who are to be converted, and so also of conversion itself.... For the question is either concern- ing the original conversion, which is that of the ungodly, or unbe- lievers and those never regenerated, or concerning the second conversion, which is the daily repentance of believers and of the regenerate. If the question be concerning original conversion, surely neither more nor less causes of conversion can or ought to be assigned than two, so that those who here add a third, and insist upon the will of man, are partakers of the synergistic error. ... Whence, if an unbelieving man who has never been regenerate is to be converted, we assert that only two causes concur, but vastly differing in kind: the one truly efficient, which is solely and alone the Holy Spirit; the other the organic or instrumental cause, which is the Word of God preached and heard, as also the right use of the Sacraments." CAL. (X, 16): "Our orthodox theory ---------------End of Page 479----------------------------------- is stated in the FORM. CONC., mainly in opposition to the Syner- gists;... to whom are to be added also PH. MELANCHTHON, as also, later, the Helmstadt divines;... although there is a differ- ence between the old and new Synergists, that the latter ascribe the beginning of conversion to the natural powers, and its progress and completion to the supernatural grace of the Holy Spirit; while the former invert the matter, ascribing the beginning to the Holy Spirit, and the completion to the natural powers." PARA. 47. (4.) The Mystical Union. The holy Scriptures assert that God dwells in the believer, and express by this a peculiar union of God with him, which Dogmatics distinguish as a mystical union. This takes place at the instant in which man is justified and regenerated, and is inseparably united with justification and regeneration, so that, as we associate with justification the forgiveness of sins, and with regeneration the power to believe, so in the mystical union we describe the direct operation of both these acts of divine grace, which consists in this, that God makes His abode in a peculiar manner in the justified or regenerate. [1] By this mystical union more is expressed than a mere agreement of the will of man with the will of God, or a mere union of both in love, or a mere influence and communication of spir- itual gifts on the part of the Holy Ghost. [2] The passages, John 14:23; 1 Cor. 6:15, 17; Eph. 5:30; 2 Pet. 1:4; Gal. 3:27; 2:19, 20, prove, moreover, that this union is not merely figurative, but literal and actual, so that it cannot be described otherwise than as the union of the substance of God with the substance of man, in consequence of which God pours out the fulness of His gracious gifts upon the regenerate. [3] It is therefore carefully to be distinguished from that indwelling which is mentioned in Acts 17:28; for, although in this pas- sage a substantial union of God with man is expressed, it must be of a different character from the other, as the one is com- mon to all creatures, the other belongs to believers. There- fore the one, as a special union, is distinguished from the other as a general union. [4] This union is characterized further as a "mystical union (because it is a great mystery (Eph. 5:32), the specific mode of which is unsearchable), also as spiritual (since it is brought about not in a carnal or corporeal, but in --------------End of Page 480----------------------------------- a spiritual and supernatural manner, by the Holy Spirit gra- ciously dwelling in the regenerate)." HOLL. (934). As we are unable to give a more specific representation of the nature and manner of this union, we limit ourselves to the removal of erroneous views of it. It would be wrong to suppose that in this union the two substances, the divine and the human, are united in such a manner that the two substances become one, or that the one is absorbed in the other; or, as if out of the two persons, God and man, one person were constituted, as in the case of the two natures in Christ. The mystical union is therefore not a substantial [5] and not a personal union. [6] [1] In regard to the order in which the mystical union follows upon the preceding regeneration and justification, QUEN. (III, 621): "Regeneration, justification, union, and renovation are simultan- eous, and, being more closely united than the ingredients of an atom (quovis puncto mathematico arctiores), so cohere that they can- not be separated or rent asunder. Yet, according to our mode of conceiving of them, justification and regeneration are prior in order to the mystical union. For when in regeneration, a man receives faith, and by faith is justified, then only does he begin to be mys- tically united to God. But renovation is subsequent to union, for from good works, which are the effects of renovation, the existence of both justification and the mystical union is inferred, a posteriori; therefore they follow each other in this order, according to our conception. Regeneration precedes, that faith may be attained. Justification follows, which is of faith. The mystical union then occurs, which is succeeded by renovation and sanctification." According to another mode of considering this, it may be said that union precedes justificatiom inasmuch as faith precedes justi- fication; and in faith, as the organ by which the union is effected, its beginning is already presupposed. Therefore HOLL. (933), after consenting to this view, adds: "Although the mystical union, by which God dwells in the soul as in a temple, may, according to our mode of conception, follow justification in the order of nature, it is however to be acknowledged that the formal union of faith, by which Christ is apprehended, put on, and united with us, as the mediator and the author of grace and pardon, logically pre- cedes justification. For faith is imputed for righteousness, so far as this receives the merit of Christ, and so unites it with ourselves as to make it ours." The union may be conceived as an act, inasmuch as it takes ------------End of Page 481--------------------------------------------- place instantaneously, and is then more particularly to be defined as a uniting (unitio) "or the act of union, which is transient and momentary, and takes place at the same time with regeneration and justification;" or, "as a state, which is properly and specifi- cally called union (unio), and remains unbroken as long as the justified person avoids voluntary sins." [2] QUEN. (III, 623): "The mystical union does not consist merely in the harmony and tempering of the affections, as when the soul of Jonathan is said to be united to David, 1 Sam. 18:1, but in a true, real, literal, and most intimate union; for Christ, John 17:21, uses the phrase, `to be in some one,' which implies the real presence of the thing which is said to be in, not figura- tively, as a lover in the beloved. The myustical union does not consist alone in the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit in be- lievers. For when Christ says, John 14:23, `I and my Father,' etc., and 5:15, `the Holy Spirit,' etc., these are not names of operations but persons. And it is entirely wanton to convert such emphatic words, expressing a reality (huparktika), by which this mystical union is described, into mere energetic expressions (energetika); for example, to come, to be sent into hearts, to dwell, to remain, to live in any one. For these are personal properties, and not attributes of operations." [3] HOLL. (932) defines: "The mystical union is the spiritual conjunction of the triune God with justified man, by which He dwells in him as in a consecrated temple by His special presence, and that, too, substantial, and operates in the same by His gracious influence." QUEN. (III, 622): "The mystical union is the real and most intimate conjunction of the substance of th Holy Trinity and the God-man Christ with the substance of believers, effected by God Himself through the Gospel, the Sacraments, and faith, by which, through a special approximation of His essence, and by a gracious operation, He is in them, just as also believers are in Him; that, by a mutual and reciprocal immanence they may partake of His vivifying power and all His mercies, become assured of the grace of God and eternal salvation, and preserve unity in the faith and love with the other members of His mystical body." While QUEN. thus, already in his definition of the mystical union, incor- porates with it union with Chirist, the God-man, CAL. (X, 526) distinguishes between the spiritual union of the regenerate with the triune God and the conjunction with Christ, the God-man; and he thus defines the latter: "The mystical union of Christ with the believer is a true and real and most intimate conjunction of the divine and human nature of the theanthropic Christ with a regen- ----------------End of Page 482------------------------------------ erated man, which is effected by the virtue of the merit of Christ through the Word and Sacraments; so that Christ constitutes a spiritual unit with the regenerated person, and operates in and through him, and those things which the believer does or suffers He appropriates to Himself, so that the man does not live, as to his spiritual and divine life, of himself, but by the faith of the Son of God, until he is taken to heaven." And he specifies, as the accompaniments and consequences of the mystical union of be- lievers with Christ (p. 568), "A spiritual anointing; the designa- tion of Christians [the anointed] taken from this; the mystical espousal with Christ. The mystical anointing is that by which the regenerate, having been consecrated to the Holy Spirit by virtue of Christ's anointing, have been furnished with His gifts as spiritual prophets, priests, and kings. (P. 572): The espousal of Christ with believers is that by which He eternally marries Himself to believers through faith, so that they become one spirit, and by His power communicates to themn, as to His spiritual bride, intimate and enduring love, all His blessings and all His glory, so as finallly to lead them to His home, and dwell with them in His celestial and eternal kingdomn." The FORM. CONC. hints at the mystical union when (Sol. Dec., III, 65) it designates as false the assertion that "not God Himself, but only the gifts of God, dwell in believ- ers." The extremes or limits of the muystical union are then thus defined: "The essence of the subjects to be united are, on the one part, the divine subtstance of the whole Trinity, 2 Pet. 1:4, and the substance of the human nature of Christ, John 15:1, 2, 4; 1 Cor. 6:15-17; Eph. 5:30; Gal. 2:19, 20; on the other part, the substance of believers, as to body and soul, 1 Cor. 6:15, 19; Eph. 5:30." The form of this union consists "in a true, real, intrinsic, and most close conjunction of the substance of the believer with the substance of the Holy Trinity and the flesh of Christ." QUEN. (III, 619) proves the Mystical Union "(1) from the promise of Christ, John 14:23, 26; 15:26. But formally to come to any one, denotes accession and approximation to him, and thus the advent of the sacred Trinity to believers, and the presence not only of His gifts, but likewise of His essence itself. (2) From the indwelling in be- lievers, Eph. 3:17; Rom. 8:9; 2 Cor. 6:16. (3) From the unity of believers with God, John 17:21. The gradation which Christ uses in this place indicates that the spiritual union, whereby He (v. 23) is in believers, is more intimate than that by which the be- lievers (v. 21) are one with God through the communion of the Spirit; and likewise in the mode and form it differs from that which is described in v. 22, where believers are said to be one with ----------------End of Page 483----------------------------------------- each other on account of the unity of faith, love, and hope, for there is superadded a full statement of the consummation (which He explains in the words: `I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.'). (4) From the partaking of the divine nature, 2 Pet. 1:4." This Mystical Union is further described in the Holy Scriptures by the expressions: the espousal of believers with Christ, Hos. 2: 19; the mystical marriage of Christ and the Church, Eph. 5:32; the union of the members and of the Head, Eph. 1:22, 23; the insertion of the spiritual branches in the spiritual vine, Christ, John 15:4-7; the abiding of the whole Trinity with regenerate man, John 14:23. [4] CAL. (X, 511): "Although we do not admit an essential union after the manner of a graft that coalesces in one numerical essence with the trunk of the tree, yet we think that here there takes place not only that common union of men with the substance of God of which we are told in Acts 17:28, nor only a union of human substance and accident, or operations, and of the divine movements; but we assert that the substance of the believer is united with the substance of the entire Holy Trinity through a conjunction of substance to substance, without extension or con- traction of the divine or human essence, by a change of manner only, which according to God's gracious will is different in this lfie from what it will be in eternal life." HOLL. (933): "The general union is that whereby all believers and unbelievers live and move and have their being in God. As fishes in water and birds in the air, so all men live and move and are in God, because He gives to all life and breath and all things." QUEN. (III, 614): "The general union of all men with the sub- stance of God the Creator is indicated in Acts 17:28, where the preposition `in' expresses the general presence of god with men. Hugo Grotius explains the particle en by a Hebraism, so that in Him would be by Him, by His favor. But there is no necessity of departing from its ordinary acceptation. For neither is the origin only expressed, that we are of Him, but in additon the divine perichoresis, that in Him we live and move and are." The special union is partly "a gracious one, in the Church Mili- tant, whereby God dwells in the regenerate by His substantial presence, and operates in them by His special concurrence, John 14:23; 17:11, 21;" and pattly a "glorious one, in the triumphant assembly of the elect, whereby God fills and delights the elect with the plentitude of His grace. 1 Cor. 15:28." HOLL. (933). As, therefore, in the general union there is likewise assumed a connec- ---------------End of Page 484---------------------------------------- tion of the divine substance with man, and not merely a gracious operation, the special union is distinguished from it in this way, that in it a new approximation of the divine essence and one dif- ferent from the omnipresence is assumed, "which is so limited to the believer that the divine substance cannot be said to be present in this way to the wicked and other creatures; and thus the man- ner of the presence in this union is expressed by a new approxima- tion of the substance." In reply to the objection: "Whatever as to its substance is already present, while it is present, is necessarily present and cannot be absent, and, therefore, it cannot be said that it comes, draws nigh, or approximates by its substance anew. But, as the Holy Trinity as to is substance or the divine essence by the comon and general presence, is already present to all creatures, and thus also to believers; therefore He cannot approach them by a new and special presence," QUEN. answers (III, 629): "(1) The substance of the Holy Spirit willed to unite itself in a peculiar manner of presence with the dove, and thus to manifest itself to the Baptist, so that where the dove might be, there it could cor- rectly and truly be said that the substance of the Holy Spirit was present in that peculiar kind of presence. (2) That the divine essence, as essence, could admit of such an approximation without the danger of its losing immensity, the peculiar mode of its pres- ence in Christ proves, in whom the divine nature is so united to the finite human nature, that in this way it neither is nor wishes to be anywhere else; which presence is determined, certainly not by a new mode of operating, cut by the intimate immanence of one near substance in another. And although this presence is very peculiar, yet it cannot be denied, because it may be deduced from the hypostatical union, that such an approximation is not entirely repugnant to the divine essence." And the position is constantly maintained, that, as the union in general is not a mere gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, so the special union does not differ from the general merely by a new and special mode of operating, but by a new approximation of the essence, and that distinct from the common mode of presence. [5] QUEN. (III, 624): "This union does not consist in transub- stantiation, or the conversion of our substance into the substance of God and of Christ, or vice versa, as the rod of Moses was converted into a serpent. Nor in consubstantiation, so that of two united essences there is formed one substance." HOLL. (939): "(a) God dwells in us as in temples, by the favor of the mystical union, 1 Cor. 3:16; but the habitation is not changed into the inhabitant nor the inhabitant into the habitation; (b) By the mystical union --------------------End of Page 485----------------------------------- we put on Christ, Gal. 3:27; but the garment is not essentially one with the person who wears it. (c) The divine nature is very dis- tinct from the human, although God comes to us and makes His abode with us, John 14:23, for He can depart from man to whom He has come. The mystical union is, therefore, inddeed, called a union of substances, but, strictly taken, not a formal substantial union (such as is that of a graft which coalesces with the trunk into the essence of the tree numerically one), but it is an accidental union. If, then, it be called a substantial union, as by many, it is not "from the mode of union, but from the result attained, because a human substance is united to a divine." [6] QUEN. (III, 624): "The mystical union does not consist in a personal union or a coalition of extremes united into one hypos- tasis or person, such as in the union of the divine and human nature in Christ; so that the believer, united to Christ, could say, I am Christ." HOLL. (939): "Paul teaches that Christ and be- lievers being mystically united remain distinct persons, Gal. 2:20." QUEN. (III, 624) adds: "The mystical union differs from the sacramental union and communion. The antithesis here is that of: (1) The Weigelians and Schwenkfeldian, who maintain that the mystical union with God, as to its mode, is essential and cor- poreal. (2) That of some Scholastics, Papists, Socinians, and Arminians, who deny that God remains in believers by a special mode of substantial presence." HOLL. (941). PARA. 48. (5.) Of Renovation. It is not enough that man learns to know his sins and hate them, nor that in regeneration he becomes able to grasp the merit of Christ by faith. God desires also that man should exercise this turning away from sin and this return to Him in a moral life, that he cease to be the old and become a new man, leading day by day a more holy life before God. And God Himself works in this direction by His divine grace, seeking to draw off man more and more from sin, and to en- courage and strengthen him for that which is good. This operation, however, wrought by God in man, is called renova- tion, so far as through it a change is wrought in man, in con- sequence of which he may be called a new man; [1] also sanctification, so far as now his life begins to become holy. [2] HOLL. (946): "Renovation is an act of grace, whereby the Holy Spirit, expelling the faults of a justified man, endows him with --------------------End of Page 486----------------------------- inherent sanctity. [3] The change that takes place in man consists further in this, that by the influence of divine grace the sin still cleaving to man disappears, more and more, and gives place to an increasing facility for doing what is good. [4] As, however, the sinfulness yet remaining in man yields only through a constantly repeated struggle against sin, this reno- vation is not a sudden, but a gradual one, susceptible of con- stant growth; [5] and as sin never entirely leaves man, it is never perfect, [6] although we are always to strive after per- fection. Finally, it is a work of God in man, yet of such a nature that there is a free co-operation on the part of man, who now in conversion has received new spiritual powers." [7] [1] Renovation, too, is taken in a wider and narrower sense. BR. (593): "Renovation in general denotes any action by which old things, or things which are injured or weakened or corrupted by age, or in any other way, are restored. So, in the spiritual renovation of man, taken more widely, the old man, as to his en- tire condition, that is, the deficiency of every kind of spiritual power, the guilt and dominion of sin, is destroyed; and the new man as to his entire extent, that is, his spiritual strength, freedom from guilt, and the habitual gift, by which the dominion of sin is subdued, is said to be produced, 2 Cor. 5:17, sqq. (where men who are in Christ are said to be new creatures). To this is referred the reconciliation with God and justification by Christ, v. 19, 21." (In which wider sense renovation is taken in the FORM. CONC., Sol. Dec., II, 70, in the AP. CONF., III, 40.) In the Holy Scriptures the word is taken in this wider sense in Heb. 6:6. BR. (594): "Renovation, strictly speaking, signifies a certain real and intrinsic change in the regenerated or converted man. This is taken transitively (as the action of God producing in us holy impulses and actions; as He is said to give a new heart and a new spirit, Ez. 36:26, to renew the spirit within us, Ps. 51:11); and intransitively (so far as men furnished with divinely imparted strength are said to renew themselves, making for themselves a new heart and a new spirit, Ez. 18:31, to lay aside the old man and put on the new, Eph. 4: 22, 24"). To this HOLL. remarks (950): "There is really no difference between transitive and intransitive renovation; because (a) it denotes the same change, by which from the old man the new comes forth, from a sinner a saint, which is called transitive, on account of its connoted dependence on God as the agent who produces it in another; but on the part of the subject, regarded as -------------End of Page 487----------------------------------------- a form of an immanent act, it is called intransitive; (b) both are accomplished by the same power, viz., not human but divine, which the Holy Spirit possesses originally and independently, the regenerate dependently and on account of the mystical union with God." QUEN. (III, 632) thus discriminates renovation from regenera- tion and justification: "Renovation differs (a) As to the efficient cause. Regeneration and justification are actions of God alone; renovation is indeed an action of God, but not of God alone, for the regenerate man also concurs, not in his own strength, but through divinely granted power. (b) As to the subject. Man altogether dead in sins is the subject of regeneration. The sinner, indeed, is the subject of justification, Rom. 4:5, 17, yet one recongizing his sins and believing in Christ; but the subject of renovation is man already justified. (c) As to the object. Regeneration is occupied with the production of faith; justification with imputable righteous- ness; renovation with inherent righteousness. (d) As to the form. Regeneration consists in the bestowment of spiritual life, and a transfer from a state of wrath to a state off grace; justification in the remission of sins and the imputation of Christ's righteousness; but renovation in a reformation of the mind, will, and affections, and so of the whole man, or in a restoration of the divine image, com- menced in this life and to be completed in the next. (3) As to the properties. Both regeneration and justification are instantaneous; renovation is progressive, from day to day." GRH. (VII, 294): "Regeneration, properly so called, like carnal generation, does not admit of degrees. But renovation does, because the interior man is renewed from day to day." "(f) As to the order. Regeneration precedes justification, and justification precedes renovation. Reno- vation is related to justification as an effect to a cause, and follows it, not in the order of time, but of nature. Therefore Paul does not use these words indiscriminately. Tit. 3:5." [2] It is likewise taken either in a wider sense, so that it em- braces in its limits calling, illumination, conversion, regeneration, justification, and renovation, as Eph. 5:26; Heb. 10:10; or in a narrower sense, so that it coincides with renovation, strictly speak- ing, as in Rom. 6:19, 22; 1 Thess. 4:3, 4, 7. BR. (594): "The conferring and obtaining of internal (or inherent) holiness is here meant; for although, in another respect, there is indeed in the act of justification the imputation of another's holiness, namely, Christ's (to which the passages 1 Cor. 1:30; Heb. 10:14, may be referred), yet men themselves here are perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, 2 Cor. 7:1." "In accordance with this the --------------------End of Page 479------------------------------ predicate of sanctity can be ascribed to the new man, but he is holy, not of himself, but of grace, Ps. 86:2; 1 Cor. 6:11; not so much in himself as in Christ, Phil. 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; not by com- pleted, but by commenced and continued holiness, Phil. 3:12." HOLL. (956). [3] HOLL. (947): "Renovation is an act of applying grace by which the Holy Spirit abolishes the inherent remains of sin in the justified man that it may not reign, and produces in him internal and external affections conformed to the divine will, and thus spiritually good, that, being endowed with the renewed image of God, he may live piously, soberly, and justly, to the glory of God the most holy." BR. (607), (representing renovation more as a state): "Reno- vation is a combination of spiritual acts which the regernerate man, God assisting graciously by His Word and Sacraments, puts forth by means of the spiritual strength afforded him as to his intellect, will, and sensual appetite, in order to destroy the remains of sin, and to acquire greater sanctity, in the way of salvation, to the glory of God." [4] QUEN. (III, 634): "The old man is the starting-point (terminus a quo), the new man the goal (terminus ad quem), Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:10." HOLL. (553): "The remains of sin are the starting-point of renovation, i.e., those remaining in justi- fied men, after illumination, conversion, and regeneration, and which are to be abolished, by daily renovation, that they may be diminised and suppressed, although they cannot in this life be entirely eradicated; to wit, some defect of the spiritual powers on the part of the intellect in regard to knowledge, on the part of the will to the pursuit of spiritual good, on the part of the sensual appetite to obey the higher faculties, together with a proclivity of these faculties of the soul to evil. The point to which renovation tends is those greater powers which, after illumination, conversion, and regeneration, are conferred upon the justified by the Holy Spirit, viz., a more clear and comprehensive understanding or knowledge of spiritual things, inherent righteousness and holiness in the will, a prompt obedience of the sensual appetite, rendered to the superior faculties; these things being unitedly conferred, the divine image is restored." "The form of renovation consisits in the expulsion of mental errors and the illumination of the mind, Col. 3:10; Rom. 12:2; in the rectification of the will and the renewing of righteousness and true holiness, Eph. 4:24; in the restraining of the appetites inclined to evil; in the purity and chastity of the affections; in ----------------End of Page 489------------------------------------- the employment of the members of the body in works of righteous- ness, Rom. 12:1; in the subduing of the dominion of sin, Rom. 6:13, 19." [5] HOLL. (955): "As the body of sin in process of time is more and more weakened by the regenerate man, so the regenerate man is transformed more and more into the image of God from glory to glory by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:16). The body of sin, Rom. 6:6, is called figuratively the old man, as it is a compound of many sins, as of parts and members. As formerly criminals were affixed to the cross, and their limbs bruised, morti- fied, buried, and corrupted, so successively the old man is crucified when the desires of his flesh are restrained and as if bound; he is bruised, 1 Cor. 9:27, so far as the flesh is kept under, the external pleasures of this world being removed; being bruised, he is morti- fied, Rom. 8:13, so far as the strength to emerge is taken from sin; mortified, he is buried, Rom. 6:4, inasmuch as the memory and the thought of illicit things are removed; buried, he corrupts, so that the entire body of sin is abolished, here inchoatively and continuously, in the life to come completely, Rom. 6:6." Reno- vation is therefore to be considered a continually progressive action both on God's and on man's part. QUEN. (III, 636): "The Holy Spirit renews man, while by means of the organs of grace, the Word and Sacraments, He enkindles in him various pious inclinations; indeed, renovation is nothing but those continuous acts by which actual sanctity is effected in man, carried on, con- tinued, and preserved." Therefore, also, renovation is distin- guished (HOLL., 956) as "commenced, continued, and completed." [6] QUEN. (III, 636): "Renovation in this life is partial and imperfect, admitting degrees, and therefore it never attains the highest acme of perfection. For sin remains in the regenerate, affects their self-control, the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and therefore ouur renovation progresses from day to day, and is to be continued through life, 2 Cor. 4:16. The want of perfection in renovation does not arise from the impotency of God, who renews, but form the incapacity of man, who is the recipient of the divine action." It can therefore have augmentations and diminutions. QUEN. (III, 636): "Renovation is increased by godly acts and frequent efforts. These being intermitted or diminished, a diminu- tion follows, so there is at one time an increase, at another a de- crease. The Holy Scriptures expressly affirm that the renovation ot eh regenerate in this life ought continually to increasse and grow, Eph. 4:16." The question whether the new man, if sin still cleaves to him, -----------------End of Page 490---------------------------------- can be considered spiritual, HOLL. (957) decides thus: "When a renewed man is called spiritual, the reason of the denomination is derived from that which is preponderant, to wit, from the pre- vailing spirit; but when the same is called carnal, the reason is derived from that which is subordinate, to wit, from the flesh, sub- dued indeed, but rebelling and resisting, with which man justified, placed in the way of life, is continually carrying on war." [7] QUEN. (III, 633): "The first efficient cause is the entire Trinity (1 Thess. 5:23; John 15:4, 5); terminatively;* appro- opriatively, the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:16; Tit. 3:5; Rom. 1:4; Gal. 5:22)." HOLL. (949): "The regenerate and justified man concurs in the work of his sanctification as a secondary cause, subordinate and moved by God, so that he renews himself daily by the powers which he has received from above. The Holy Spirit produces in man, without human concurrence, the power to produce good works and the first act of sanctification; but man concurs in the second act of santification, or in the exercise and continuance of it, when once introduced by the Holy Spirit.... The regenerate man co-operates with God in the work of sanctifica- tion, not by an equal action, but in subordination and dependence on the Holy Spirit, because he works, not with native but with granted powers. This is inferred from the words of the apostle, Phil. 2:12, 13." -------------------------------- SUPPLEMENTARY.*! PARA. 49. Of Good Works. Renovation makes itself known by good works. [1] By these we understand such acts as are performed by the regen- -------------------------------------------------------------------- *[For the ground of this distinction, see PARA. 19, Note 22, last paragraph. As applicable to this article, HOLL. (344) has very clearly presented it thus: "Sanctification is, inddeed, a divine action ad extra, and therefore is undivided, or, in other words, is common to all three persons of the Godhead, and accordingly is ascribed also to God the Father, John 17:17, and God the Son, Heb. 9:14. But in the Holy Scriptures and the Apostles' Creed the Holy Spirit is characterized by an outward mark of discrimination, as it were, so that he is said to sanctify us terminatively, Rom. 14:16."--TR.] *! Most of the Dogmaticians discuss the doctrine of good works immediately after that of faith. (GRH. (VIII, 1): "The article of good works conveniently follows the doctrine of justification by faith. For, although we are justified by faith -------------------End of Page 491----------------------------------------- erate in accordance with the divine will, [2] whether they be outward visible acts or inward acts, impulses, and movements in man. [3] They are called good works, not as though they were good and perfect in themselves, [4] for such cannot be performed by sinful men, [5] but because they are the out- growth of a good disposition, well pleasing to God, and because they proceed from the faith of one who is reconciled to God. [6] They cannot be produced, therefore, until man has been regenerated, because not until then does such a disposition, wrought by the Holy Ghost and well pleasing to God, dwell in man, and not until then has he become able to do what is good; [7] wherefore, even those acts of the unregenerate which externally correspond with the divine Law cannot at all be called good works. [8] Such good works, however, must be wrought by the regenerate; not, indeed, as though they had thereby to justify themselves before God, or to merit their sal- vation (for unless they were already justified, they could not perform good works), but because they thereby show their obedience toward God, whose will it is that He be honored by a holy life and good deeds, and at the same time, through them, demonstrate the actual existence of such a believing dis- postion. Where this exists it inwardly impels to the per- formance of good works with the same necessity with which the good tree produces good fruits. [9] This necessity is, therefore, no compulsion imposed from without upon man, nor does it destroy his Christian liberty; rather, this exhibits itself by the very fact that man now, with the inward pleasure, and under promptings of his own, can accomplish what the Law of God demands of him. [10] And for this he has a right, too, to expect reward from God; but this is a gracious reward, and the prospect of such reward is not the leading motive for the performance of such good works. [11] [1] BR. (607): "To the doctrine concerning renovation belongs ----------------------------------------------------------------- without works, and thence good works are to be removed from the forum of justification, yet that true and living faith by which we are justified is not without works, since the blessings of justification and sanctification, regeneration and renovation, are united in a constant and indissoluble bond." We here follow, however, the arrangement of BR., because the connection of faith and justification would be too much broken by the introduction between them of the doctrine of good works. ------------------End of Page 492----------------------------------- that of good works, which partly are related to renovation as an end and effect, and partly have respect to its formal reason." [2] HOLL. (1190): "Good works are free acts of justified per- sons, performed through the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit, according to the prescription of the divine Law, true faith in Christ preceding, to the honor of God and the eddification of men." [3] AP. CONF. (III, 15): "We profess, therefore, that there is a necessity for the Law to begin in us and to increase more and more. And we embrace both together, viz., spiritual emotions and external good works." HOLL. (1190): "By works here are un- derstood not only external visible actions (which proceed from the hand or tongue), but internal affections of the heart and move- ments of the will, and thus the entire obedience and inherent righteousness of the regenerate. A distinction is, therefore, to be made between internal and external good works. The former are seen by the eyes of God alone, and comprise the inner thoughts of the mind, the movements of the will, and the pure affections of the heart (such as love, the fear of God, confidence towards God, patience, humility). The latter are seen not only by God, but likewise by man, and manifest themselves by outward demeanor, words, and actions. It has seemed good to holy men of God to use the appellation of works rather than habits or affections, as all the praise of true virtue consists in action, and as external works are more known than internal qualities and affections; finally, as the works of the regenerate alone are deserving of the praise of good works." QUEN. (IV, 306): "A good work is that which God commands, and which is done with the disposition, manner, and purpose for which it has been commanded." HOLL. (1198) adds also: "A good intention is to be accounted among good internal works." [4] HOLL. (1190): "The works of regenerate and justified men are called good, not absolutely, as if they were perfectly good, but in their kind, because (a) they derive their origin from the good Spirit of God, Ps. 143:10; (b) they proceed from a good heart, Matt. 12:35; (c) they are in some degree conformed to the good will of God, expressed in the Law, Rom. 12:2; And (d) they de- ign a good end, the glory of God." QUEN. (IV, 306): "The works of the regenerate, in themselves considered, are not perfectly good, but are rendered sordid and polluted by the stain of sin; but in Christ they are perfectly good, and in such a sense that what is not done in them is pardoned through and on account of Christ, and what is wanting to their perfection is compensated for by the imputation of the most perfect obedience of Christ." ------------------End of Page 493------------------------------------ [5] Much more, all good works are imperfect. HOLL. (1199): "The good works of regenerated and renovated men do not reach that degree of perfection that they cannot increase (Eph. 4:15), nor do they perfectly correspond to the divine Law (Rom. 7:14), nor are they so complete that they can sustain the rigid scrutiny of divine justice (Ps. 143:2), but they are imperfect (James 3:2)." BR. (612): "Since sin has entered the world, and adheres ten- aciously even to regenerate men, so that the flesh contantly strives against the Spirit, it happens that we do not do the things that we would (Gal. 5:17). And so, sometimes, in the circum- stances of good actions, we err and stumble, or do not operate with that promptitude and alacrity which are due, but with diminished zeal; or we pollute our works, however good, by an inordinate self- love attending or following." In this is already embraced the rejection of works of supererogation (works not due, to which man is not bound by the divine precept). HOLL. (1202): "As the works of the regenerate, to the performance of which they are bound by the divine Law, are not perfect, much less are those which they are not bound to do performed in a perfect manner." [6] HOLL. (1191): "The source through which the renewed man performs good works is true and living faith in Christ (Gal. 5:6), which is called the cause of good works by emanation (Matt. 5: 16)." The form or formal reason of good works is, therefore, "when they are considered absolutely and in themselves, the ennomia or conformity with the Law of God (which is the rule and canon of good works); but, when reference is had relatively to the special favor of God, so far as, although they may not exactly correspond to the Law, they nevertheless please God, their form is faith in Christ." (Id. 1193.) GRH. (VIII, 14): "Since the works of even the regenerate are imperfect and impure, therefore, that they may please God, it is necessary that faith in Christ should be added, on account of whom apprehended by faith, not only the person, but likewise the good works, of the regenerate please God. Hence it is said that faith is the form of good works in the regenerate." AP. CONF. (III, 68): "`Works,' which although they are performed in the flesh not yet entirely renovated, which retards the motions of the Holy Spirit amnd imparts some of its own impurity, nevertheless on account of faith are holy and divine works, the offerings and administration (politia) of Christ, showing His kingdom before the world." HOLL. (1193): "Although these works are imperfect and impure, they are nevertheless acceptable to God, because their stains are covered with the veil of Christ's most perfect obedience, which the --------------------End of Page 494---------------------------------- regenerate apply to themselves and make their own by faith." As the adequate and infallible rule of good works is designated: "The divine Law, comprehended in the Decalogue, which per- fectly and sufficiently commands the things to be done, and pro- hibits the things that are to be shunned, Deut. 12:32." HOLL. (1192): But the conscience of the renewed (1 Cor. 4:4) is dis- carded as a primary and simply infallible rule; much more the dictates of right reason, and the law of nature, though the former may have authority as a secondary norm, so far as it applies the divine Law to a particular or single action, and shows what is to be done here and now. Even the Gospel is not the norm or direc- tive principle of good works, but rather a conferring principle (because it confers the Holy Spirit, through whose impulses, and communication of strength and co-operation we do good), and pro- ductive (because it produces faith, the basis of every good action). Comp. FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., VI, 10 sq.): "It is distinctly to be explained, what the Gospel contributes to the new obedience of believers, and what (as to the good works of believers) is the office of the Law. For the Law teaches that it is the will and command of God, that we should lead a new life; but it does not give us strength and faculties with which we can commence and afford the new obedience. But the Holy Spirit, who is given and received by the preaching not of the Law but of the Gospel, renews the heart of man. Afterwards the same Spirit uses the ministration of the Law, that by it He may teach the regenerate, and show them in the Decalogue what is that good and acceptable will of God (Rom. 12:2), that they may know what good works are to be ob- served, as those which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10)." [7] AP. CONF. (III, 4): "Because faith brings the Holy Spirit and produces a new life in the heart, it is necessary that it should produce spiritual affections in the heart. After we are justified by faith and regenerated, we begin to fear God, to love, to ask and expect assistance of Him... we begin likewise to love our neigh- bors, because our hearts have spiritual and holy emotions. These things cannot take place unless, being justified by faith and regen- erated, we receive the Holy Spirit.... Likewise, how can the human heart love God while it perceives Him to be dreadfully angry, and to be oppressing us with temporal and perpetual calam- ities? But the Law always accuses us, and constantly shows that God is angry. Therefore, God is not loved till after we have ob- tained mercy through faith." [8] FORM. CONC. (IV, 8): "Although those works which tend ------------------End of Page 495--------------------------------- to the preservation of external discipline (such as are performed also by unbelievers and men not converted to God, and are indeed required of them) have their dignity and praise before men, and are honored by God with temporal rewards in this world, yet as they do not proceed from true faith, they are really sins before God, that is, contaminated with sin, and are reputed as sins and impurity by God, on account of the corruption of human nature, and because the individual is not reconciled to God, Matt. 7:18; Rom. 14:23." HOLL. (1193): "The upright works of unregenerate men (whether they be out of the Church or have an external connection with it, GRH. (VIII, 6)), which contribute to external order and the preservation of society, are civilly and morally to some extent good; but they are not good theologically and spiritually, nor do they please God; and, therefore, inasmuch as they are destitute of the constituents of really good works, they are properly called splendid sins." When, for instance, on the basis of Rom. 2:14, it is conceded, that even the unregenerate may do the things of the Law, this is thus restricted: "The will of man can in some meas- sure attain civil righteousness, or the righteousness of works; can speak of God; can worship God in an external manner, obey the magistrate, and parents in the selection of worldy pursuit; can restrain the hands from slaughter, from adultery, from theft." AP. CONF. (VIII, 70). But spiritually good works are thus char- acterized: "(1) They are the fruits of the Spirit, Gal. 5:22. (2)' They are performed by persons reconciled to God through Christ. (3) They proceed from a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. 1 Tim. 1:5. (4) They are spontaneous and free ac- tions. (5) They are directed to the glory of God." (HOLL., 1194.) The requisites of truly good works are wanting, therefore, in the works of the unregenerate, and in addition, "This defect of their actions is not supplied by the imputation of another's right- eousness, since the unregenerate do not accept and apply to them- selves by faith the vicarious obedience of Christ." HOLL. (ib.). Further it is admitted, that such an action is not only in its outward manifestation good and right, but that in addition good is done by it, yet it is not really good on the acccount, as it is not produced in the right spirit. QUEN. (IV, 312): "Although, therefore, some of the actions of unregenerate men are not vicious in themselves and as to their substance, they are nevertheless, by way of acci- dent vicious, viz., because they are devoid of the requisites of really good works before God. Wherefore, when even the virtuous ac- tions of unbelievers are called sins by Augustine, Luther, and -----------------End of Page 496-------------------------------------- others, it is not in respect to the very matter or substance of the actions, nor so far as they are undertaken and performed according to the views of right and wrong remaining in this corrupt nature since the Fall (for in this manner we grant that they are good), but in respect to the efficient, formal, and final cause of works, by which their good or bad quality is to be estimateed in God's judg- ment, to wit, because their works are polluted and contaminated by sins, as they are not performed by a person reconciled to God, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, nor to the glory and honor of God." [9] AP. CONF. (III, 68): "The works are to be done on account of the command of God; likewise, for the exercise of faith; further, on account of confession and giving of thanks." QUEN. (IV, 308): "Good works are not indifferent or arbitrary, but evidently necessary for every man, particularly for the regenerate, though not by a necessity of constraint. Good works should be spon- taneous and free, not constrained. For they are necessary, neither to acquire salvation (as a means), nor to earn salvation (as a merit), nor to attain salvation (as an indispensable condition or cause), nor to reach it (as a mode of coming to a final goal), nor, finally, to preserve it (as a conserving cause). But we hold good works to be necessary, by the necessity, (1) of the divine com- mand, Mal. 1:6; Matt. 5:44; (2) of our duty, or of gratitude due for the benefits of creation, redemption, etc.; (3) of presence (that believers may not lose the grace of God and faith, and fall from the hope of the inheritance, although not by reason of an efficacy of the work to obtain righteousness and salvation); (4) of a divinely appointed order and sequence to justification and faith because as effects they necessarily follow their cause." The FORM. CONC. (Epit. IV) decides in regard to the expressions: "Good works are necessary to salvation;" "good works are injurious to salvation," thus: "This is our belief, doctrine, and confession, I. That good works as surely and undoubtedly follow true faith as the fruits of a good tree. II. That good works are to be entirely excluded, not only when justification by faith is the subject, but even when our eternal salvation is discussed. III. All men in- deed, especially when they are regenerated and renewed by the Holy Spirit, are under obligation to do good works. IV. And in this statement the words necessary, due, ought, are used correctly, for they do not conflict with regeneration and the form of sound words. V. But by the words necessity, necessary, when, for in- stance, the subject is the regenerate, constraint is not to be under- stood, but only that due obedience, which true believers, inasmuch ---------------------End of Page 497-------------------------------- as they are regenerate, perform, not by compulsion or by the force of the Law, but with a free and spontaneous spirit.... VI. We confess that, when it is said, that the regenerate do good works with a free and spontaneous spirit, this is not to be taken in such a sense as though it were left in the will of regenerate man to do good or evil, as he thinks proper, and nevertheless to retain his faith although he may intentionally remain in sin." The two ex- pressions (good works are necessary, injurious to salvation) are rejected as liable to misapprehension. [10] HOLL. (1203): "Good works are not actions free from the necessity of obligation or duty, but are said to be actions free from the necessity of constraint (because they are not extorted by the threats of punishment, or externally, and in appearance, performed contrary to the will), and of immutability (since the will is no longer determined to the constant thought and perpetration of evil, as before conversion; but can freely choose, and do good works by supernatural strength, received from the Holy Spirit; can likewise choose evil works by the remains of the flesh, still adhering to it, since it is not determined to good as the angels are); and are per- formed by the regenerate, freed from the servitude of sin by the Holy Spirit (John 8:36; Rom. 6:18; 2 Cor. 3:17)." [11] AP. CONF. (III, 73): "We teach that rewards are proposed and promised to the works of believers. We teach that good works are deserving, not of pardon, grace, or justification (for we obtain these solely by faith), but of other bodily and spiritual rewards in this and a future life." HOLL. (1215): "The regenerate have respect in the performance of good works, first, to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31); second, they may have respect with filial affection to the remunerations of this and a future life, not as a due reward or master's compensa- tion, but as gratuitous gifts and divine blessings, to terminate ulti- mately in the glory of God (1 Tim. 4:8)." REMARKS--The greater part of the divines add further an article on the performance of good works, which QUEN. has most fully developed. (IV, 309): "The performance of good works in its widest extent can be called the Christian warfare. For the life of the faithful Christian is a continual spiritual warfare, Job 7:1; 1 Tim. 1:18; 2 Tim. 2:3. He fights by faith, hope, and patience. --The enemies against whom he must fight are the devil, the world, and the flesh.--The arms of the spiritual warfare are described, 2 Cor. 10:4, 5; Eph. 6:10-17; 1 Pet. 5:8.--The standard under which we fight is the banner of the cross, Matt. 16:24.--Definition: This Christian warfare is a daily contest, and an eternal enmity ---------------End of Page 498-------------------------------------- to everything which is opposed to the will of God and His king- dom." Upon this follow the chapters, "(1) on the cross, which is painful suffering, sent by God, as a merciful Father, to believers for a limited time, to the glory of the author and the salvation of the sufferer (351); (2) on prayer, a religious act, by which the Christian calls as a suppliant on the Triune God and Christ the God-man,... with true confidence of heart, relying on the merit of the Mediator alone and His intercession, to the glory of God and his own and others' salvation." (354) (HOLL. treats only of prayer, BR. of neither.) ------------------End of Page 499-------------------------------- This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by William Alan Larson and is in the public domain. You may freely distribute, copy or print this text. Please direct any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther Library at Concordia Theological Seminary. E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA Phone: (260) 452-3149 Fax: (260) 452-2126