Fourth, the Weigelians.
Fourth, the Weigelians.
§ 479. (IV) The Weigelians also remove the judiciary office of Scripture in controversies of faith. We read in the preface to Weigel’s Post.: “You should not look for judgment from the letter of Scripture but from the Spirit, for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.” In the book whose title is Güldengriff, p. 55: “Some do not want to adhere to men in this way, but decide to look for judgment from the letter of Scripture. Because the letter sounds this way or that, they want to believe this way or that about the articles set forth. Whoever claims otherwise they call a heretic, though they still cannot agree among themselves.” Page 59: “You cannot look for judgment from the letter of Scripture. Rather, you must seek it from the Word or from the Spirit.” We respond. (1) One must not wickedly separate the sense of the Holy Spirit from the letter of Scripture, because the Holy Spirit does not wish to instruct us about the articles of faith except through the letter of Scripture. (2) Christ and the apostles in the New Testament do not send us back to a private spirit but to that very letter of Scripture. (3) By the “letter that kills” (2 Cor. 3:6), the apostle means the Law that remains fixed in the letters, for it does not confer strength to keep it; by “the Spirit,” he means the Gospel, which has the power of the Spirit connected to it and which gives life, because the Holy Spirit confers faith thereby (Gal. 3:2). One cannot infer from this, however, that God’s Word, whether written or spoken, is a dead letter. Whatever kills is not a dead letter. The preaching of the Law kills. Therefore it is not a dead letter. Whatever gives life is not a dead letter. The preaching of the Gospel gives life. Therefore. (4) The disagreement among those who appeal to the judgment of Scripture is by accident because they are bringing in a preconceived meaning to Scripture, not drawing it from the Scriptures.
§ 480. We have said that the goal or end of Scripture is instructing humans for eternal salvation [2 Tim. 3:15]. In order for Scripture to accomplish that in us and for us to draw this happiness from Scripture, we must read and interpret it. If one does not transfer Scripture from reading to use, it will not be able to provide this divine efficacy, as we see from the history of the Israelite church, which fell into idolatry when the book of the divine Law lay covered in mold and dust (2 Kings 22:8). Also, one cannot reach an understanding of each and every passage unless interpretation is added (Acts 8:31). The causes that ought to impel us to a frequent and daily reading of Scripture, as well as the rules one must observe in both his cursory and careful reading of Scripture, we have explained in our Method. studii theologici. Here we shall speak about those things to which the reading of Scripture is related. Thus we shall make a transition from the end of Holy Scripture to its object.
78 See Glossary, on “subordinate.”
79 On the Church, Commonplace XXV, §§ 104ff.