tion and fear toward God, except in view of the truths revealed concerning Him in his Word. We can have no love or devotion to Christ, except so far as the manifestation of his character and work is accepted by us as true. We can have no faith except as founded on some revealed promise of God ; no resignation or submission except in view of the wisdom and love of God and of his universal providence as revealed in the Scriptures ; no joyful anticipation of future blessedness which is not founded on what the Gospel makes known of a future state of existence. The Bible, therefore, is essential to the conscious existence of the divine life in the soul and to all its rational exercises. The Christian can no more live without the Bible, than his body can live without food. The Word of God is milk and strong meat, it is as water to the thirsty, it is honey and the honeycomb.
The Lutheran Doctrine.
This doctrine has already been briefly, and, perhaps, suf- ficiently discussed on a preceding page ; l it cannot, however, be properly overlooked in this connection. The Lutherans agree in words with Rationalists and Remonstrants, in referring the efficiency of the Word of God in the work of sanctification to the inherent power of the truth. But Rationalists attribute to it no more power than that which belongs to all moral truth; such truth is from its nature adapted to form the character and influ- ence the conduct of rational creatures, and as the truths of the Bible are of the highest order and importance, they are willing to concede to them a proportionate degree of power. The Lutherans, on the other hand, teach, — First, that the power of the Word which is inherent and constant, and which belongs to it from its very nature as the Word of God, is supernatural and divine. Secondly, that its efficiency is not due to any influence of the Spirit, accompanying it at some times and not at others, but solely to its own inherent virtue. Thirdly, that its diversified effects are due not to the Word's having more power at one time than at another; or to its being attended with a greater or less degree of the Spirit's influence, but to the different ways in which it is received. Christ, it is said, healed those who had faith to be healed. He frequently said: "According to your
I faith be it unto you," or " Thy faith hath saved thee." It was not because there was more power in the person of Christ when the woman touched his garment, than at other times, that she i See vol. ii. p. 656 f.
480 PART IH. Ch. XX. -THE MEANS OF GRACE.
was healed, but because of her faith. Fourthly, that the Spirit never operates savingly on the minds of men, except through and in the Word. Luther in the Smalcald Articles says : " Constanter tenendum est, Deum nemini Spiritum vel gratiam suam largiri nisi per verbum et cum verbo externo et praecedente, ut ita prsemuniamus nos adversum enthusiastas, i. e., spiritus, qui jac- titant se ante verbum et sine verbo Spiritum habere." * And in the Larger Catechism,2 he says : " In summa, quicquid Deus in nobis facit et operatur, tantum extends istius modi rebus et constitutionibus operari dignatur." Luther went so far as to refer even the inspiration of the prophets to the " verbum vocale," or external word.3
This divine power of the Word, however, is not, as before remarked, to be referred to the mere moral power of the truth. On this point the Lutheran theologians are perfectly explicit. Thus Quenstedt4 says: "Verbum Dei non agit solum persua- siones morales, proponendo nobis objectum amabile; sed vero, reali, divino et ineffabili influxu potentiae suae gratiosas." This influx of divine power, however, is not something occasional, giving the word a power at one time which it has not at another. It is something inherent and permanent. Quenstedt says : 5 'Verbo Dei virtus divina non extrinsecus in ipso usu demum accedit, sed . . . . in se et per se, intrinsice ex divina ordina- tione et communicatione, efncacia et vi conversiva et regeneratrice praeditum est, etiam ante et extra omnem usum." And Hollaz 8 says it has this power " propter mysticam verbi cum Spiritu Sancto unionem intimam et individuam."
Professor Schmid, of Erlangen, in his " Dogmatik der evangel- isch-lutherischen Kirche," quotes from the leading Lutheran the- ologians their views on this subject. Hollaz, for example, says that this " vis divina " is inseparably conjoined with the Word ; that the Word of God cannot be conceived of without the Spirit ; that if the Holy Spirit could be separated from the Word, it would
1 ii. viii. 3 ; Hase, Libri Symbolici, 1846, p. 331. « iv. 30; Hase, p. 540.
3 See Smalcald Articles, n. viii. 10, 11: "Quare in hoc nobis est, constanter perseve- randum, quod Deus non velit nobiscum aliter agere, nisi per vocale verbum et sacramenta, et quod, quidquid sine verbo et sacramentis jactatur, ut spiritus, sit ipse diabolus. Nam Deus etiam Mosi voluit apparere per rubum ardentem et vocale verbum. Et nullus propheta, sive Elias, sive Elisaeus, Spiritum sine decalogo sive verbo vocali accepit." Hase, p. 333.
4 Theologia Didactico-Polemica, I. iv. ii. qusest. rvi. «x0«"*» *; edit- Leipzig* 171S, p. 248.
• J bid. I- iv. ii. qusest. Ttvi.fontes solutionum, 7; p. 268.
6 Examen Tkeohgicum Acroamaticum. nr. ii. 1, quaest. 4; edit. Leipzig, 1763, p. 992.
* t-J THE WORD. 481
not be the Word of God, but the word of man.1 Quenstedt says that the action of the Word and of the Spirit is one and indi- visible. Baier says :2 " Nempe eadem ilia infinita virtus, quse es- sentialiter, per se et independenter in Deo est, et per quam Deus homines illuminat et convertit, verbo communicata est : et tan- quam verbo communicata, divina tamen, hie spectari debet." A dis- tinction, says Quenstedt, is to be made between the natural instru- ments, such as the staff of Moses, or rod of Aaron, which God uses to produce supernatural effects, and those, as the Word and sacra- ments, which are " sua essentia supernaturalia Ilia indigent
novo motu et elevatione nova ad effectum novum ultra propriam suam et naturalem virtutem producendum ; haec vero a prima in- stitution et productione sufficienti, hoc est, divina et summa vi ac efficacia praedita sunt, nee indigent nova et peculiari aliqua eleva- tione ultra efficaciam ordinariam, jamdum ipsis iriditam ad produ- cendum spiritualem effectum."3 That the Word is not always efficacious is not because it is attended by greater power in one case than another, but because of the difference in the moral state of those to whom it is presented. On this point Quenstedt says, " Quanquam itaque effectus Verbi divini praedicati nonnunquam impediatur, efficacia tamen ipsa, seu virtus intrinseca a verbo tolli et separari non potest. Et ita per accidens fit inefficax, non poten- tise defectu, sed malitiae motu, quo ejus operatio impeditur, quo minus effectum suum assequatur."4 A piece of iron glowing with heat, if placed in contact with anything easily combustible, produces an immediate conflagration. If brought in contact with a rock, it produces little sensible effect. So the Word of God fraught with divine power, when presented to one mind regen- erates, converts, and sanctifies, and when presented to another leaves it as' it was, or only exasperates the evil of its nature. It is true these theologians say that the operation of the Word is not physical, as in the case of opium, poison, or fire ; but moral, " illus- trando mentem, commovendo voluntatem," etc. Nevertheless the illustration holds as to the main point. The Word has an inherent, divine, and constant power. It produces different effects accord- ing to the subjective state of those on whom it acts. The Spirit acts neither on them nor on it more at one time than at another.
1 Hollaz, Examen, in. ii. 1, 4; edit. Holraise et Lipsise, 1741, p. 987.
2 Compendium Theologice Positives, Prolegg. II. xxxix. d ; edit. Frankfort and Leipzig, 1739, p. 106.
* Quenstedt, Theologia, I. iv. ii. qusest. xvi. ex&o-i?, 7, ut supra, p. 249.
* Ibid, quaest. xvi. 9.
•"■ol.. in. 31
482 PART HI. Ch. XX. — THE MEANS OF GRACE.
Remarks.
1. It is obvious that this peculiar theory has no support from Scripture. The Bible does indeed say that the Word of God is quick and powerful ; that it is the wisdom of God and the power of God ; and that it convinces, converts, and sanctifies. But so does the Bible say that Christ gave his Apostles power to work miracles ; and that they went about communicating the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, healing the sick, and raising the dead. But the power was not in them. Peter was indignant at such an imputation. " Why look ye so earnestly on us," he said to the people, " as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk ? " If the Apostles' working miracles did not prove that the power was in them, the effects produced by the Word do not prove that the power is in it.