3. The spirit is referred to the word as the soul to the ⟨p. 172⟩body; the body is but a lump of dead clay if the soul be removed, and the word is so many sounds, syllables, and letters, if the spirit act not; this is a similitude and would be well exponed.1 There is a two-fold power, one subjective and material, which comes from the Author the holy Ghost; in which regard the word of God from the Author the Holy Ghost hath actu primo as touching the matter and efficient cause, holiness, liveliness, divinity, majesty of style even as contradistinguished from the spirit acting with it; there is no word, no book, no speech of Angels or Men comparable to it.2 There is 2. A formal power which agrees to the word actu secundo as the spirit going along with the word makes it effectual, to enlighten, to teach, to rebuke, to convince, to persuade; so our Divines say (a modern Lutheran widely mistakes) the efficacy of the word is from the spirit, 2 Cor. 10. 4. the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty; how mighty, not of themselves, but mighty through God. We make not the word of it self, a dead inky letter, as Papists and Libertines both do. The like distinction is clear in a Sword or an Axe of steel, both the one and the other from the matter and artificer that made them hath actu primo sharpness and aptness to cut: Suppose the Artificer that made both be dead, yet the sharpest two-edged sword that is, except it be wielded by the arm of a valiant man can do no good in war: And the like may be said of the Axe, both are dead things of themselves.
3. The spirit is referred to the word as the soul to the ⟨p. 172⟩body; the body is but a lump of dead clay if the soul be removed, and the word is so many sounds, syllables, and letters, if the spirit act not; this is a similitude and would be well exponed.1 There is a two-fold power, one subjective and material, which comes from the Author the holy Ghost; in which regard the word of God from the Author the Holy Ghost hath actu primo as touching the matter and efficient cause, holiness, liveliness, divinity, majesty of style even as contradistinguished from the spirit acting with it; there is no word, no book, no speech of Angels or Men comparable to it.2 There is 2. A formal power which agrees to the word actu secundo as the spirit going along with the word makes it effectual, to enlighten, to teach, to rebuke, to convince, to perswade; so our Divines say (a modern Lutheran widely mistakes) the efficacy of the word is from the spirit, 2 Cor. 10. 4. the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty; how mighty, not of themselves, but mighty through God. We make not the word of it self, a dead inky letter, as Papists and Libertines both doe. The like distinction is clear in a Sword or an Axe of steel, both the one and the other from the matter and artificer that made them hath actu primo sharpness and aptness to cut: Suppose the Artificer that made both be dead, yet the sharpest two-edged sword that is, except it be weelded by the arm of a valiant man can doe no good in war: And the like may be said of the Axe, both are dead things of themselves.
- 1A two-fold power of the word.
- 2Of the power of the word and the power of the spirit, and how they are differenced.
