X. The end of sacred theology: internal and external; the life of God; four grades of life
X. What is the END of sacred theology? 1. The end of sacred theology is considered as twofold, internal and external. The internal is to teach the sacred mysteries and dogmas from the Scriptures — that is, to explain, demonstrate, and defend them rightly — unto exciting the life of God in the hearers. The external is the life of God, by which we are united, subjected, and obedient to our creator, redeemer, and sanctifier in light (Ephesians 4:17–18), or human beatitude begun, which is of faith, then consummated, which is of vision or eternal life, by which it is well with us in the way and in the fatherland in God, and by him we are nourished, strengthened, and refreshed as by our last real personal end (Genesis 15:1).
2. This life, one and the same as to essence, remains from its beginning unto eternity (John 3:36; John 5:24; 1 John 3:15). 3. And to live to God and to Christ (Romans 6:10–11) and to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24) is to direct all our actions and operations of faith and of life according to God's will unto God's glory, and to serve him in them, God himself acting within. 4. So we are said to live according to the flesh (Romans 8:12–13) — that is, to institute and carry out all our actions at the pleasure of original malice. Contrary to this is to live by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25), to live justly, soberly, piously (Titus 2:12), no longer to live the remaining time in the flesh to human lusts but to the will of God, and to live according to God, that is, by the Spirit (1 Peter 4:2, 6). So Paul (Galatians 2:19–20): that I may live to God, he says, I have been crucified together with Christ — that is, I have been mortified, or my old Adam has been slain and a new one founded in me, that thereafter I may serve God by the Spirit of newness (2 Corinthians 4:10; Philippians 1:20).
5. The life of GOD — not that by which God himself lives, who is life itself, but that by which we are made alive by him, or rather live — can be taken twofold (Ephesians 4:18): either that which is counted before God, as the glory of God (John 12:43), the righteousness of God (Romans 10:3–4, 6) by the grace of evangelical justification; or that which God communicates to us by the spirit of regeneration. 6. Whichever way you take it, the sense is the same. For this common life by which we are human beings, compared to the life of God, is nothing other than an empty image of life, not only because it quickly passes, but also because our souls are dead while living when they do not cling to God.
7. And there occur in this world four grades of life. For one is most common, which consists only in vigor, which belongs also to plants and the vegetable kingdom and by the Paracelsists is stretched also to the mineral kingdom. Another is universal, which consists in motion and sense, of which beasts also are partakers — which Thomas Campanella in his books on the sense of things extends to all parts of the world and the particles of parts. The third is human, by which we are sons of Adam. But the fourth is supernatural, which the faithful alone obtain. 8. All these grades of life are from God, and therefore can loosely be called the life of God. Of the first and second grade there is (Acts 17:28). But the fourth by excellence — the regeneration of the faithful, which is the principle of eternal life — is here named the life of God, because then God properly lives in us, and we enjoy his life, when he governs us by his Spirit, according to that (Romans 8:10–14): If Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also make alive your mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in you. Therefore, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, it will be that you die: but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God.
Latin
X. Quis FINIS sacrae Theologiae sit? 1. Finis sacrae Theologiae duplex consideratur, internus et externus; internus est mysteria et dogmata sacra e scripturis docere, hoc est, recte explicare, demonstrare ac defendere ad excitandam in auditoribus vitam Dei: externus est vita Dei, qua creatori, redemtori et sanctificatori nostro unimur, subjicimur et obedimus in luce, Ephe. 4.17.18. seu beatitudo hominis inchoata, quae est fidei, tum consummata quae est visionis sive vita aeterna, qua nos in via et patria in Deo bene est, eoque nutrimur roboramur et recreamur tanquam ultimo fine nostro reali personali, Gen. 15.1. 2. Vita haec una eademque quod ad essentiam, a suo principio permanet in aeternum, Joh. 3.36. cap. 5.24. 1. Joh. 3.15. 3. Est autem Deo vivere et Christo Rom. 6.10.11. et justitiae 1. Petr. 2.24. omnes nostras actiones et operationes fidei vitaeque secundum voluntatem Dei, ad gloriam Dei dirigere, eisque illis servire, Ipso Deo intus agente. 4. Sic dicimur secundum carnem vivere, Rom. 8.12.13. i.e. omnes nostras actiones ad libitum originalis malitiae instituere et peragere. Cui contrarium est spiritu vivere, Gal. 5.25. juste, sobrie, pie vivere, ad Titum 2.12. non amplius cupiditatibus hominum, sed voluntati Dei quod in carne reliquum est temporis vivere, et vivere secundum Deum, i.e. spiritu, 1. Pet. 4.v.2.6. Sic Paulus Gal. 2.v.19.20. ut Deo, inquit, vivam, una cum Christo crucifixus sum, i.e. mortificatus sum, sive vetus Adamus meus jugulatus est et novus in me conditus, ut Deo posthac spiritu novitatis serviam, 2. Cor. 4.v.10. et Phil. 1.v.20. 5. Vita DEI, non qua Deus ipse vivit, qui ipsissima vita est, sed qua nos ab eo vivificamur, vel potius vivimus, bifariam accipi potest, Eph. 4.18. vel quae censetur coram DEO, ut gloria DEI Joh. 12.43. justitia DEI, Rom. 10.3.4.6. per gratiam Euangelicae justificationis: vel quam Deus nobis communicat, per spiritum regenerationis. 6. Utrovis modo sumas, eadem tamen sententia est. Nam communis haec vita, qua sumus homines, ad vitam Dei comparata, nihil aliud est, quam inane simulacrum vitae, non modo quia cito praeterit, sed etiam quod animae nostrae vivendo mortuae sunt, cum Deo non adhaerent. 7. Occurrunt autem in hoc mundo quattuor vitae gradus. Nam una est communissima, quae duntaxat vigore constat, qui etiam in plantas ac regnum vegetabile competit et a Paracelsistis ad regnum minerale quoque exporrigitur. Altera universalis, quae motu et sensu constat, cujus etiam participes sunt bestiae. Quam Thomas Campanella libris de sensu rerum ad omnes mundi partes, partiumque particulas extendit. Tertia humana, qua sumus filii Adami. Quarta vero est supernaturalis, quam soli fideles obtinent. 8. Omnes hi vitae gradus a Deo sunt, ideoque vita Dei laxe appellari possunt. De primo et altero gradu habetur Act. 17.v.28. Quarta vero per excellentiam regeneratio fidelium, quae aeternae vitae principium est, hic nominatur vita Dei, quia tum proprie vivit Deus in nobis, et nos fruimur ejus vita, cum spiritu suo nos gubernat, juxta illud Rom. 8.10.11.12.13.14. Si Christus in vobis est, corpus quidem mortuum propter peccatum: Spiritus autem vita propter justitiam. Sed si Spiritus ejus qui excitavit Jesum a mortuis habitat in vobis, Is qui excitavit Christum ex mortuis, vivificabit etiam mortalia corpora vestra per inhabitantem ejus Spiritum in vobis. Nempe igitur, fratres, debitores sumus, non carni, ut secundum carnem vivamus. Nam si secundum carnem vixeritis, futurum est ut moriamini: sed si spiritu actiones corporis mortificetis, vivetis. Quotquot enim spiritu DEI ducuntur, ii sunt filii DEI.