# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1863_S295
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Some Remarks on a New Apology for the Reformed Church. 295

even the most acute and learned people on earth, when they read or hear the gospel concerning the Son of God and the promise of eternal blessedness, can nevertheless neither perceive, grasp, understand, nor believe the same of their own powers, nor hold it for truth; but rather, the greater the diligence and earnestness they apply and the more they seek to grasp these spiritual things with their reason, the less they understand and believe, and hold all of it for nothing but foolishness or fables, until they are enlightened and taught by the Holy Spirit." Our Formula of Concord is so far from ascribing to natural man — as Mr. Kr. imputes to it — "the faintest breath of a genuine yearning after God and his grace," as a required, antecedent "worthiness of disposition," that it rather teaches, from precisely such yearning, the inference that God already has his work of grace present in that man. It writes: "In sum it remains eternally true, what the Son of God says: Without me you can do nothing; and Paul, Phil. 2: It is God who works in you both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Which lovely saying is a great comfort to all devout Christians who feel and sense in their hearts a small spark and yearning after God's grace and everlasting blessedness, that they may know that God has kindled this beginning of true godliness in their hearts." Finally, therefore, not only gross Pelagianism but also the more subtle synergism is expressly condemned, where it says: "In the fourth place (there is rejected) the teaching of the synergists, who claim that man is not altogether, in spirit-

[continuing from the previous page's footnote] -ual actions, which serve outwardly for spiritual ones, and are therefore also called pedagogical or hand-leading actions toward conversion — for example, the physical act of going to church, the physical lending of the ear to hear the Word of God, speaking of it, reading the books of Scripture. That in the unregenerate there is, with respect to these objects, a certain — but on account of various hindrances a very slight and weak — freedom of the will, is attested both by experience and by what Scripture grants, Rom. 1:19–20; 2:14–15; 10:3; Phil. 3:6. .. To the higher hemisphere we also reckon going to church with the intention of drawing instruction from the word preached, the reading and hearing of the Word of God with the intention of making progress, and being seized by a desire for instruction out of God's Word; all of which are works of prevenient and inaugurating grace."
("There are two hemispheres of objects with which the will of man in the state of corruption is occupied, one lower, the other higher. To the lower hemisphere belong the outward sacred things, or pedagogical actions, which are natural and outwardly serve spiritual actions, whence they are also called pedagogical, or conversion-guiding [manuductory], actions — for example, the physical going into the temple, the physical fitting of the ears to hear the Word of God, discussing it, reading the books of Scripture. That concerning such objects there is in the unregenerate some freedom of the will, but on account of various hindrances a very weak and feeble one, both experience attests and Scripture grants, Rom. 1:19–20; 2:14–15; 10:3; Phil. 3:6. .. To the higher hemisphere we also refer the going into the temple for the purpose of gathering instruction from the word preached, the reading and hearing of the Word of God with a mind to make progress, and being seized by a desire for instruction from the Word; all of which are works of prevenient and incipient grace.") Theol. didact.-pol. I, 1087, 1089.