_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
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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-
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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-
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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 s