MEAXS
Sanctus, qui fidem afficit, ubi et quando visum est Deo in [ iis, qui audiunt Evangolium," etc. To this statement is joined the declaration, " Uamnant Anabaptistas et alios, ([ui sentiunt, Spiritum Sanctum contingerc sine verbo \ I xterno hominibus per ipsorum prasparationes ad opera." Tlie Ileidelberfi CaltchUm enounces the same doctrine, ! and at the same time states still more emphatically the i connection between the sacraments and the Word of j (iod in quest. (55 : '• Whence comes saving grace ? It is the effect of the Holy Spirit in our heart by means of the preaching of the holy (iospel, and contirmed by the j use of the holy sacraments." (The most imiiortant pas- sages of symbols on this i)oint arc : Apolnj. iv, 153 ; A r- tic. Smulc. pars ii, 2, 8 ; Catechism, maj. Pra?ccptum iii, p. 42G; JSi/mboLupost.\).bQ2; Fo7-muL cone. Epitome : "De lib. arbitr." Negativa vi ; SolUl. decl. p. 055, GG9, 828 ; Cuiif. lldi: ii, c. 1 ; Conf. Gall. art. 25, 35; Conf. Bchj. art. 21.) The means of grace are called instrumcuia yra- tl(i\ media, adiiiiiiiriila (jratiw. In the Lutheran Church the union between the Word and the sacraments is made much closer than in the Keformed. The JJcl relic Con- fe.<dim treats of the Word of God in the first chapter, and of the sacraments in the nineteenth. The reason of this separation is that the Bible, as the Word of God, is the foundation of the whole system. Yet their con- nection and union are not lost sight of: "Triedicationi verbi sui adjunxit Deus mox ab initio in ccclesia sua sacramenta, vel signa sacramentalia." The idea of the unity of the means of grace is not considered by the evangelical Church as only a formal, human, or theolog- ical connection between the Word of God, baptism, and the Lord's Supper, but as the consequence of a divine act, the institution of the Church and of the ecclesi- astical office. The means of grace are not mere pos- sessions of the Church, but its foundation itself. The Church is called into existence by the Word of God, ivhile by baptism and communion it is manifested as a religious community (see Vovf. A iig. art. vii). Schleier- niacher himself recognised in them the essential and unchangeable foundations of the Church (ii, § 127). Thus he contradicts himself when further on, treating of the connection between baptism and the Lord's Supper, he refuses to consider it as an actual dogmatic point (p. 41 G). The unity of the means of grace may be brictiy said to consist in their constituting the Church as the organ of transmission of grace. The inner ground of their unity is grace itself, of which they are the chan- nels; the outer aspect is the ministeriiim, the office ap- pointed by Christ, which has to administer both forms of the means of grace.
This brings us to the significance and necessity of these means of grace, or to tlie views of the Protestant Church as opposed to the Roman Catholic Church on these points. The first iMjiiit of difference lies in the conception of the ecclesiastical office. Both, indeed, con- sider it as a divine institution, but the rrotcstauts look upon it as a miuisterium, v;h\ch can be considered as a continuous Christian working of the Church in the Word and sacraments, while the Koman Catholics re- tain the idea of a sacerdotium forming the real funda- mental means of grace, and creating itself the distinct means of grace after the manner of the apostles (see Dicringer, I.ehrhnch d. Kalli. Bor/malik, p. 512), "The substitution of the Son of man by the apostleship." If its sacerdotal character is susceptible of being defended by Scripture and tradition, it yet is certain that it is only through tradidon that it obtained this superior importance, as capable of creating the other means of grace. The practical results of this superior importance became manifest in the prohibition to read the Bible, the refusal of the chalice in commimion. etc., thus di- minishing the other means of grace, while they were increased on the other hand by the ]iromulgation of the commandments of the Church,, and the institution of additional sacraments; and also modified in the doc- trine of the sacrificial character of the I'^iicharist, etc. Thus the rrotcstant doctrme of the means of grace dif-