state of mind due to his abiding presence and power. Such is the estabhshed theological and Christian usage of this word. B} grace, therefore, in this connection is meant the influence of the Spirit of God on the minds of men.
This is an influence of the Holy Spirit distinct from, and acces- sary to the influence of the truth. There is a natural relation between truth, whether speculative, aesthetic, moral, or religiou;:, and the mind of man. All such truth tends to produce an effect suited to its nature, unless counteracted by inadequate apprehen- sion or by the inward state of those to whom it is presented. This is of course true of the Word of God. It is replete witli truths of the highest order ; the most elevated ; the most impor- tant ; the most pertinent to the nature and necessities of man ; and the best adapted to convince the reason, to control the con- science, to affect the heart, and to govern the life. Opposed to this doctrine of the supernatural influence of the Spirit of God on the minds of men, additional to the moral influence of the truth, is the deistical theory of God's relation to the world. That theory assumes that having created all things, and endowed his creatures of every order, material and immaterial, rational and irrational, with the properties and attributes suited to their nature and des- tiny, he leaves the w^orld to the control of these subordinate or second causes, and never intervenes with the exercise of his imme- diate agency. This same view is by many Rationalists, Pelagians, and Remonstrants, transferred to the sphere of the moral and re- ligious relations of man. God havino; made man a rational and moral being and endowed him with free agency ; and having re- vealed in his w^orks and in his Word the truth concernino- Himself and the relation of man to the great Creator, leaves man to himself. There is no influence on the part of God exerted on the minds of men, apart from that which is due to the truth which He has revealed. Those numerous passages of Scripture which attribute the conversion and sanctification of men to the Spirit of God, the advocates of this theory explain by saying : That as the Spirit is the author of the truth. He may be said to be the author of the effects which the truth produces ; but they deny any intervention or agency of the Spirit additional to the truth objectively present to the mind. On this point Limborcli ^ says, " Interna vocatio .... quas fit per Spiritum Dei, .... non est virtus Spiritus seorsim
operans a verbo, sed per verbum, et verbo semper inest
Non dicimus duas esse (verbi et Spiritus) actiones specie distinctas :
1 Theohgia Christiana, iv. xii. 2; edit. Amsterdam, 1715, p. 350, a.
t)56 PART m. ch. XIV. — vocation.
sed unam eandemque actionem ; quoniam verbum est Spirltus, hoc est, Spirltus verbo inest." ^ This may be understood either in a Rationalistic, or in a Lutheran sense. It expresses the views of those extreme Remonstrants who inclined most to Pelagianism, With Pelagius little more was meant by grace than the providen- tial blessings which men enjoyed in a greater or less degree. Even free-will as a natural endowment he called grace.
Lutheran Doctrine on Common Grrace.
A second view on this subject is that of the Lutherans already referred to. They also deny any influence of the Spirit accessary to the power inherent in the Word. But they are very far from adopting the deistical or rationalistic hypothesis. They full}' admit the supernatural power of Christianity and all its ordinances. They hold that the Word " habet vim aut potentiam activam su- pernaturalem ac vere divinam ad producendos supernaturales effectus, scilicet, mentes hominum convertendas, regenerandas et renovenclas." ^ This divine efficacy is inherent in, and inseparable from the Word. The words of man have only human power, pre- senting arguments and motives to convince and to persuade. The Word of God has supernatural and divine power. If in any case it fail to produce supernatural effect, i. e., to renew and sanctify, the fault is in the hearer. It is like articles of the ma- teria medica, which have inherent virtue, but which nevertheless require a suitable condition in those to whom they are adminis- tered, in order to their proper effect. Or, to take a much higher illustration and one of which the Lutheran divines are especially fond ; the Word is like the person of our Lord Jesus Christ when here on earth. He was replete with divine virtue. Whoever touched even the hem of his garment, was made whole of what- ever disease he had. Nevertheless without faith, contact with Christ was inefficacious. There is all the difference, therefore, according to the Lutheran doctrine, between the word of man and the Word of God, that there was between Christ and ordinary men. The effect of the Word is no more to be attributed to its natural power as truth on the understanding and conscience, than the cures effected by Christ are to be referred to any natural remedial agencies. The effect in both cases is supernatural and divine. " Verbum Dei," says Quensted,^ " non agit solum per- Buasiones morales, proponendo nobis objectum amabile, sed etiam
i Theologia Christiana, iv. xii. 4; p. 351, a. ^ Schmid, Dogmatik, third edit p. 393. 8 Syitema Theologicum, i. iv. 2, 16, 4, edit. Leipzig, 1715, p. 248.