About 1540.
The rational art of Melanchthon contains all the necessary precepts (or teachings), so to be found in Aristotle, Rodolphus and Petrus Hispanus. But Philippus has explained the teachings with beautiful examples, and has reported our lines of the right use of the art of reasoning. But I will put them in my books in one and another doctrine, if I live.
For the whole reason consists in the division, definition (exact description) and way to conclude.
The division indicates that one does not need the word in an ambiguous way; e.g., if I were to speak of faith, I would use the abbreviation "faith".
division: It is a historical faith, which the devils also have; a worldly (civil) faith in words and works, which is remembered in the reckoning of the fruits of the Spirit, Gal. 5:22, and a Christian, true, unfeigned, living and righteous faith.
If I were to judge about marriage, I would have to leave the difference in advance. For there is a double, namely a half-started (or vowed), and consummated marriage.
The definition (or exact description) indicates what the thing is that is being talked about. But the things to be described are double:
*This writing is found only in Walch. He reports about it in his preface to the 14th volume, p. 84 f., that v. Löscher from a manuscript, which may have been written around 1540, and according to which Luther was so copied, this dialecticam or rather usum logices theologicum, ab illo demonstratum of a preface, which he put to LI. Wolfgang Gottlob Förtschel's biblical Lexicon Luthers, which was published in 1726. The translator Äugust Tittel gave this writing the title: "Vernunftkunst mit Gott. V. I. M. Die Lehrart der Vernunft- oder Schlußkunst, so der Ehrwürdige Herr D. Luther gelehrt", for which we have put the above title after the Latin.
An independent thing, or the accidental thing.
The independent thing is a body according to Aristotle, or a thing according to Donatus.
Substantials are of two kinds: incorporeal and corporeal. For with this common division we are satisfied here.
The incorporeal ones are either uncreated or created. Uncreated, incorporeal beings are God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Since no one has seen God, and He is revealed to us in the Word of the Son, the exact and proper descriptions of the essence and will of God, of the difference between the persons, must be badly taken from the written Word of God and the testimonies of the Church of all times and spoken according to it.
The created incorporeal substantial are the good and bad angels and spirits of the people. For actual descriptions one must take also from the holy scripture.
The corporeal substantial (beings) are partly rational, like man; partly unreasonable. Of these, some have living and moving bodies, others do not move.
The actual description of man is also to be taken from Scripture; but of the other animals and creatures of God and of all instruments, it is taken from the working causes, which partly fall into the senses, and partly are found out by man's reason in diligent research. For what has only one being (I am speaking of bodies that can be seen and grasped) is made of something else: and this 1) is called matter, which is twofold, either raw or made with art. The latter can be seen, so the eyes can judge such visible and tangible matter.
Even if a raw matter has its forms or shapes, like the metals, of which the philosopher speaks, and the unadjusted stones and woods, art and chance give new forms to a raw matter. Therefore
The form of two things. The natural, as it is created or grows naturally, and the artificial.
1) In the old edition: the.
In the same way, the forms are either external, as the quantities (magnitudes and numbers), or the qualities; but some are internal, as the habitus (or habitual skills), which the teachers of reason also call differentias specificas (essential differences or qualities).
The form is therefore the quantity of the body, or inner or outer quality. It gives the thing the essence that is, does not make matter, but makes the thing essentially different.
All forms, however, have the name in view of and because of (respective) an existing matter and the creator (or imager), so the acting cause is called. What the teachers of nature and reason teach about the difference between the main causes, a student must learn diligently. For this knowledge serves to make out the greatest tragedies.
What something does or makes, however, aims at a final purpose. The thing or effect that is produced follows the action.
But what has only the being (I speak of bodies), that is in a place and in the time. Therefore, the ancients added ubi (where) and quando (when) to the predicaments.
And everything that is there, when it is compared with each other, has an inequality. Thus the (exact) descriptions often arise from equalities and inequalities, especially of unknown things, which are often used by those who describe herbs and animals. These are not so far above the common mind that even laymen (or common people), if they are told about them, can judge them well.
Thus, the (actual) best descriptions arise from the main causes. They go straight to, says D. Luther, 2) and report one correctly, and one comes to it sooner and closer than by praedicabilia and praedicamenta, which, to speak actually, take everything from causis (or main causes), how many names are attached to things from the main causes, and the teachers of oratory take all their figures of speech and extensions of words from the
2) If this writing is otherwise by Luther, then this is to be regarded as an insertion of the scribe.
The first thing that Melanchthon showed us was the "main cause". The same has erroneously taken place in the art of speech and speech forms (schematibus).
Let us give one and another example. The farmers speak: What is this thing? What is it made of? What is the matter? How is it made? This is the form. Where does it come from? That is the acting main cause. With what is it made? That is the tool cause. What does it serve? What is its use? is the final cause. When it comes into the work and has reached its end, it is effectus (or effect), e.g. man.
But here one must make a difference, Another is man before the fall; another after the fall. Another is born again of water and the Spirit, and who lives in faith in this mortal body. Another in the resurrection, when he bears the image of the transfigured body of the Son of God, all holy and immortal and glorious. The man, the Son of God, walking in the holy, yet mortal flesh, is also a different man, not only because the human nature is guided by the divine, but also because he is completely holy, without disorder, yet subject to human characteristics, yet without sin, misery and death.
But let's look at the whole Adam according to the main causes.
Adam is a creature of the Holy Trinity, created from an earthly lump, in the image of God, wise, just, immortal, although he should live in the animate life until the transformation, that he should praise God the Creator, beget children and live with God in eternal joy.
The earth lump is the matter. The image of God, so a piece of the Godhead is, is the essential form. Because of the quantity (size) and qualities, parts we have thought nothing here. The creating Trinity is the acting cause. The final purpose, that he praises God always. The place can also be added: created in paradise; likewise the time (quando), on the sixth day after creation of the world. The likeness: equal (or similar) to God according to the soul or spirit, and the
good angels, except that he was created from earth.
If one now wants to describe the fall correctly, he looks completely different than before. However, since he is redeemed and sanctified and restored, he is far better than the innocent Adam before the fall. For he will no longer lead an animated or natural (animatum) life, but a spiritual one in a spiritual body and soul, which will no longer fall.
I add another common example.
A pewter jug. The matter is pewter; that it stands, is hollow, is overheated, has a lid and a handle, these are essential pieces or shapes. The pewter caster is the active cause. The artist's form and tools are the work-centred cause. The final purpose is for the artist who wants to sell it to preserve himself and his own; but for the buyer to use it, as a tool, for the necessary use of the family and for ornamentation. etc. The matter and form are visible; of the main cause and end purpose, people can say orally, or one investigates it naturally from the nature of relativorum (or things that belong together, or relate to something else). If an unknown jar is actually to be described, then one describes the equality first, and does it approximately after the quantity (size).
In the art of Arzue there are descriptions of the bodies. The lawyer (or jurist) talks about the right to the bodies and the right of the border. So one takes the descriptions from the relations, from what for command (or force) the border is set, where and why?
Now I will give an example of random things.
Namely, of something that you can neither see nor grasp, but merely have in your thoughts.
Such accidental things, let them be quantities or qualities, are attached to their essential things (subjectis), which the teachers of reason call materia in qua (or matter thereon), and have with their objectis or correlativis
which are called materia circa quam (or matter around which). For the accidental things have no matter "out of which" (or ex qua), because they have no bodies.
Whoever wants to talk about faith, for example, must first explain the ambiguous.
There is a historical, civil, and justifying faith. This faith, however, if it is knowledge, applause or confidence, is in the time of man, to whom we also attribute knowledge and thoughts according to the theologians' teaching.
The form, or formalia, (essentials) of justifying faith are thus, to know, or hasten, firm and certain thought, or applause, or confidence. These essentials must be taken from clear testimonies of Scripture according to proper doctrine: whether something is what it is, whether it is the same?
That a faith fei, no one who is a right member of the church will deny.
What faith is, teaches the Scriptures. And since we have spoken of the formalities (or essentials), these must be taken from certain passages of Scripture. This is what Rodolphus calls: whether it is so? But the Son of God John 17 calls faith a knowledge, and Isaiah: a certain thought, likewise Paul: a true, firm and undoubted confidence, joyfulness.
But since each (accidens) is said to be an accidental thing or form of another, or to have a necessary essence (subjecto), because accidental things in themselves have a wedge-like essence, one must, according to the right doctrine, seek the independence or subjectum of faith, which is the materia in qua: If, according to the right doctrine, accidental things in themselves have a distinct essence, then one must necessarily seek the independence or subjectum of faith, which is the materia in qua. And this is man's heart, in which are thoughts, scientific reasons (or principles) and applause. There faith is found, as Paul says Rom. 10, 10: "If one believes from the heart, he is justified." 1)
But he who recognizes recognizes something, and he who believes believes something. That is why faith, or true thought, is called firm and certain confidence, or joy ad aliquid, or aiming at something,
1) Put by us instead of, "One believes from the heart unto righteousness."
and has an objectum or thing in view, which he recognizes or confesses, which he agrees with and trusts: this is now called in relatione correlativo- rum (in the connection of things belonging together) of faith either objectum, or materia circa quam. And this is the word of the Gospel, the promise or grace, in which God promises us forgiveness of sins and eternal life out of pure grace, because of the intercession and blood of Christ. For to believe rightly is as much as to believe the word, and through the apostle's word we believe in Christ. Thus the King had the justifying faith, Joh. 4, 50, because man believed the word.
The faith that is thus entangled in the Word recognizes from the Word the grace of the Father, the blood of Christ, becomes partaker of the Holy Spirit and rests on the Word, and as strong and certain as the Word is, so strong and certain is also the faith that is founded and supported on the Word, although the fickleness or weakness of the human heart always struggles with the certainty of faith.
These formalia, and the materia in qua and circa quam, make up the actual description of faith, and show how the weak faith in our hearts and the firm word in our thoughts are to be distinguished, so that we do not doubt the certainty of the promise because of the smallness and weakness of our faith.
The working cause. Everything that is, has its cause; therefore faith does not arise from itself, or from nothing, or from rational thoughts, or philosophical musings, but from the preached, written, read, heard word of God, with which it always has to do. For faith comes from the word or hearing, says Paul (Rom. 10, 17.), that is, the working cause of faith is the ministry of the Spirit. When ungodly people are baptized, taught, absolved, hear about Christ, the Holy Spirit, who is present, moves the hearts, awakens inexpressible sighs from the innermost part of the heart. The hearts begin to applaud, to sigh, to delight in such knowledge, and the Holy Spirit works.
2) In the old edition: the.
Spirit not on stones but on people etc.
Just as faith is born of the Word, the Spirit and the sacraments, so it is nourished and sustained by meditation and diligence in the Word, godly sighs, and the right use of the sacraments. The Spirit helps our weakness, and the right spirit is given to the one who prays, and he who has, receives; as we see in the prodigal son, Luc. 15.
The final cause (final purpose). But what works also works to a certain end. So the end of faith is that we here, through faith, receive forgiveness of sins, reconciliation, imputed righteousness, the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit, so that in the knowledge of the Father's mercy, which shines and is seen in the blood of the Mediator, a new life, light and joy are kindled in the believer, and transfigures us into the image of the Son of God from one clarity to another, and restores in us the wisdom, righteousness and glory of God that we lost in Adam, and kills the sins in and 1) and gives us comfort in fear, and overcomes the horror and feeling of both deaths in us, so that we gently depart from this world to eternal life.
This final purpose of faith will take effect when we are brought out of the graves and placed at the right hand of God, that we may resemble the Son of God, our brother, in sanctified and perfected wisdom, righteousness, joy, honor and immortality, as. Peter says (1. Ep. 1, 9.). The end of faith is eternal life, which we have here in hope, but there in the thing itself, when we will be like the Son of God. This is the doctrinal way of dealing with a simple sentence.
One also adds comparisons and examples, so that everything becomes clearer; e.g. when one speaks of the great and wonderful faith of Abraham, the centurion, and the Cananaean woman; but the small and weak one of the apostles, the royal, the father in Marco. For from accidental
1) In the old edition: "ins" instead of: in us.
One prefers to speak of things in concreto (or of persons) rather than in abstracto or badly (or in mere thoughts and imagination), since one deals only with ideas or separated concepts.
Let us give another example of marriage.
Scholars distinguish between a marriage that has been solemnized (or vowed), when a promise is made for the future or the present, and a marriage that has been consummated, when a wedding is solemnized with public ceremonies.
If one now wants to describe the marriage correctly, he thinks first of the common kind under the praedicabilibus.
The common type (genus) of marriage is the right. The right is a right order or establishment. Therefore it belongs to justice. Righteousness is a virtue or something honorable that coincides with the word of God, or reason, or the expressed (written) laws. Virtue is an inherent skill (habitus) of the mind. This habitus is a quality in the predicaments. The qualities, if they are considered according to their main causes, are forms (shapes). They are accidental things. Whether the right in itself is an order of God or something good, so we act, when we speak of marriage, not in abstracto, but of the right to marriage in a person.
But now we want to go through this simple sentence or matter according to all main causes. Wise people count it (the marriage) for certain causes to the praedicamento relationis. Others have" certain questions of doctrine. But different people talk about the same thing in different ways, all of which are in agreement and aim at one purpose and end, both the teachers of reason and of oratory; only that the first draw mere lines, but the last add colorful colors and secondary things.
Whether a marriage is, one must know from the word of God, reason and the laws.
What it is, give the main causes, which we also bring out according to the word of God, the natural law, the moral art and the prescribed law, according to certain doctrine and by reflection.
When you think of random things, the first thing you think of is form.
Then the formal cause of marriage is a lawful, indissoluble union. These words must be made according to the words of Scripture, according to the nature of the causes and godly examples in which the form of a right marriage is presented. In Genesis 2, the words are clear about the form of marriage, so in Genesis 24 in the history of Rebecca, and in the legal scholars likewise. This union is then legal if it is done with the consent of the bridegroom and the bride, and the consent of the parents according to God's and the emperor's law; likewise with the public testimony of those who were present at the transaction; likewise with what words, signs and pledges the consent has been indicated; likewise with what ceremonies the union or marriage has been performed and completed. There will be a heap of matter to talk about, if one describes this part of the exact description, namely the form, and confirms everything finely, as is reasonable, with laws and examples.
For the question: if and what it is? is followed by the question: if it is that? For one must not merely say and state a thing, but also prove and affirm it.
But since the union is among several, one must also ask: What is the subjectum or the matter, in which the union takes place. The matter, in which there are two persons, a male and a female, is now stated and confirmed from the word of God. And this matter must be explained with many scholars' research, namely, that such two persons must be of proper age and health in order to be suitable for marriage. For it is said of a perfect man that he is fit for marriage. Likewise, that they be free persons, and that neither blood friendship nor affinity stand in the way, and that blood and public honor be shunned, of which godly men teach salutary both among divine scholars and legal experts.
For man and woman are taken in this description for such persons who have no defect.
The active cause. For the honor and comfort of marriage, the main cause is spoken of, namely, that God ordered, blessed, preserved and protected this state, in which one also sees that God is chaste. One can also see from an honest marriage bed what the love of the Son of God is for His bride. For among the lesser causes is counted by some the consent by which marriage is contracted, if it be lawful. And if it has been once according to the laws and respectability, then it is a right marriage, although the minds and wills among the spouses become divisive afterwards. For the union and the right of marriage remain inseparable throughout life, unless adultery, malicious desertion and death and murder intervene. These causes destroy the bond. But otherwise the disagreement does not separate the marriage. For as that must always be arbitrary, which one once liked, so also that over which two persons become properly one. This also includes the celebrated betrothal, as well as the (priestly) union, which does not make the marriage itself, but only confirms and seals it.
The final causes, as the production of children. But whether marriage does not always attain this end, yet when the formalia (or essentials) of marriage are null and void, it remains wholly valid. For there are also other final purposes; for example, that fornication may be avoided. Therefore, even against the old papal law, marriage cannot be denied to the ancients; for marriage is an experience of the law, and a consolation of human life, and an ordinance against dissolute lusts, or rather evil thoughts etc. There are also other theological ends; for example, that in chaste marriage one recognizes a chaste God, and calls upon him with a good conscience and a pure heart. Likewise, that the secret of the bridegroom, the son of God, and his Heziba or church, be known in honest marriage and sweetest parental love, as well as conjugal affection, among one another. etc.
The similarities can be taken from other comparisons. The examples of honest and blessed marriage are Adam's, Rebecca's, Esther etc. Because the polygamy ge-
The gospel abolishes both of these, after the first institution: "Two shall be one flesh, and inseparably united, or, as the emperor says, to an inseparable community of life"; and also evil examples, such as Lamech's, Esau's, David's, who took another's wife. For although one must go by laws and not by examples, the addition of examples gives light and interpretation to the matter itself. So much for the division and correct description of a simple proposition.
Now follows the kind of conclusion that belongs to the joined sentences or speech, and to the question: whether it is? namely, if one is to prove that the description concerns the thing described or not. For he who asserts something must prove it. The matter of the art of conclusion are round (or short) descriptions. And the word of God also approves, and the laws always include something of a description. Or one also concludes from the division, or matter, or form, or cause, final purpose or effect, affirmative or negative.
From the form.
Titius and Bertha are not legally united; therefore, there is no marriage between them. The conclusion, if it is a hidden superordinate clause (prefix), is a piece of the description, which contains the formalities or essential pieces. The intention must be proved. For the other person has not consented to anything, or the parents have not given their yes, or otherwise something has gone against other laws or princely orders, or against the law of the land; e.g., in Meissenlande it is a law that secret betrothal without the parents' will is not valid.
Of Matter.
The Turks have many wives; therefore, they do not have a proper marriage. The conclusion or the hidden intention is in the matter, therefore it is valid. For the intention is clear.
Titius has held a public engagement with Bertha, therefore he cannot have Rhea. The conclusion is correct, because the person must be free and single.
Mitio is a sixty-year-old man, so his marriage between him and his neighbor is not valid. The conclusion is wrong. One gives an example: Abraham, an old man, and Mithridates of ninety years have taken wives.
This old mother is eighty years old and can no longer give birth due to old age, therefore her and Mitioni's marriage is legally invalid. The conclusion is not valid, because there are more final purposes in marriage.
So much in brief of the matter of conclusions or final speeches, which are taken from theology, the word of God, law and statutes, principles of nature and natural science, and other rules. These conclusions then have their right reason and are valid.
The form of the conclusion are: syllogism or conclusion speech, and enthymema, short conclusion (or siunbehaltung).
The resolution (major) is a saying or common sentence or treatise in general, either a description or a piece of description (definitio).
The subordinate clause is the attribution (hypothesis), namely, the treatment of a particular kind or of a single thing. This is the case when the common account is drawn and interpreted to the intended thing or trade, or when something of the intended thing (subjecto) is denied.
The working cause of the final speech or this art is God, the author of all good, just, and fairness of the arts; likewise of those forms which God has planted in the minds, that one may grasp a trade finely round about, and report it to the people and keep it.
The ultimate purpose of the final speech is to teach people artificially so that they can hear and retain it. But since the true is distinguished from the false, he who grasps the true in his mind and judges rightly from the basis of a trade will then also easily notice the fallacies and false dealings. For then one judges only from the contradiction of the matter. For all false conclusions are either contradictory or lacking in ambiguity or division, or in some main cause, or do not conclude the same.
or captivates the opponent with several sentences; and often he who has a bad thing speaks confusedly and darkly with all diligence. So much for the short art of conclusion or reason.
But I ask you as a friend that you interpret this above and in haste scribbled together and briefly drafted work 1) for the best. You will soon see the usefulness of these things when you use these short and childish rules for important things.
Practice is the best teacher for reasoning and speaking. If a case arises, and you refer to a passage from Scripture or the laws concerning the intended transaction, you will immediately think of the division or difference.
Now if the real meaning of the words is there, then make the right description from the Scriptures, or the right according to the main causes.
Then apply them to your case, and see whether it agrees with the picture given in the description or not, then you will be able to conclude either affirmatively or negatively from it, and also to refute what is contrary to it.
Also the causes have great use in the analyi (or interpretation, explanation), if one wants to interpret a whole book or text, or a whole content, or something of it. For first one must think what the matter of the book or the saying fei; one must read the whole book diligently. Then, if the writing is extensive, one must think of the parts, or consider all the words in the text according to the doctrine, etc., then of the things that belong to the form, how it is formed? how it is spoken of? Likewise, of the main cause, who is the author or active cause of it? what drove the author? what kind of tool he had? Item, of the final purpose, what he intended? what he aimed at? what the book is useful for or serves? what one has to learn from it? Likewise the circumstances: Where and when the book
1) If Luther wrote this, then Löscher's assumption that we have to do with a postscript falls away.
What are the times like? because they are, as it were, an interpretation.
An interpreter, who must be practiced in the art of language, must think of this. He must also understand the languages themselves well, if the book consists of many languages. For the mere teacher of language (grammaticus) alone judges the actual meaning, origin, and force of the words, as well as the correct version or combination of the words, and the forms of speech in the teachings of God. Whoever wants to explain the Latin text should go to the basic text. In the New Testament, he researches diligently from which place of the Old Testament the intended passage is taken. In the Old Testament he researches where the passage was explained in the New Testament. He also consults the commentators and histories, for there is no book so bad that he does not occasionally find something good in it. He looks for the true meaning of the Greek words in the Greek authors. He holds the Hebrew ones against each other, and above all he seeks the kingdom of God in the knowledge of his ineptitude and trust in the mediator, and asks God, the giver of all wisdom, to give him the Holy Spirit, and directs all his studies to the praise and glorification of the divine name in theology and to the salvation of the churches, and in other arts to the preservation of righteousness and tranquility, then all things will fall to him, and he will often have good ideas from God, and be instructed by the Holy Spirit, as He is with the prayerful, who ponder, seek God's glory, speak kindly and honestly with good friends, and inquire about doubtful things with those who possess glorious gifts in the Church. For without God's blessing there is nothing good in men, which even the pagans confess.
I will add an example from the 9th chapter [v. 26.] of the first book of Moses of the analysi or explanation of the Scriptures here.
There are two kinds of matter in theology, law and gospel.
So let it be this
1. The first thought of a godly and learned interpreter, to see if the passage is about the Law or the Gospel?
"Praise be to the God of Shem, and Canaan be his 1) servant."
This place is evangelical. For it deals with the blessed (or highly praised) Son of God and spiritual blessing, and comprehends the person and office of Messiah. If one has now the main kind (genus) in mind, so think one
2. to the matter.
Matter is the thing or objectum (intended thing) that the text is about.
Here the text is about the Son of God, who shall become man, and his ministry, and about the lineage, from which he shall be born. For Moses also writes of me, says Christ, and all the patriarchs and prophets were called directly by the Son of God, and have seen the Son of God in the Spirit, and have testified of the Messiah etc. Noah is a patriarch, a high bishop of his time, directly called by the Son of God etc. Likewise Moses describes almost in all histories of the patriarchs their creed or doctrine. Accordingly, Noah also preaches in his last words or testament about the Son of God and summarizes the summa of his teaching, his symbolum.
The language or letter art has to create here also. Because the name Shem can be understood by all casus of Christo. "Praised be the GOtt Shem!" or, from Shem the son of GOtt is to be praised. Or: GOd will bless Shem, that is, in the line of Shem the Son of GOd will distribute his spiritual blessing, and will spring from his descendants. Or: O Shem! the Lord God, the Son of God, whose father you will be according to the flesh, will be blessed, to be praised, to be glorified, because he will be full of spiritual blessings, grace and truth. He will restore us to grace, will give that we may become pleasant, and will bring forth again the doctrine of truth, and make us, who are by nature lying, true, upright, and right, because we shall bear his image etc. I come back to our
1) In the old edition: their.
"Praise be to the Lord GOtt Sem!"
For as Christ is called David, because he is David's seed, so he is called Shem, because he was to be born of Shem. For the children bear the names of the parents. "Praised be the GOt Shem!" or the GOt of Shem and the GOt of David. The Lord will be blessed, praised, or will be preached and called upon in the whole world; he, the given birth of the virgin's womb, full of grace and truth, who will bless all who believe in him. These are the materials, or this is the opinion of Christo, who is to spring from Shem's family.
But here many pieces come together. The father prophesies to Noah that the mediator will spring from Shem, the middle son, or that Shem will be the father of the promised seed. At this revelation he becomes joyful in spirit, who was very sad because of the flood of sin and because of the fall, and because of the sin of the son, and because of the curse of the godless world; therefore he breaks out into a joyful voice, like Zacharias and Mary, like Paul in the epistle to the Ephesians: "Praise be to the Almighty God, who will fulfill his promise as a true God, and will cause his son to be born from my son's loins" etc. One can remember here the joy of Noah, who saw this, knew this, saw the day of the Son of God, like Abraham, and certainly believed and desired to see Christ in the flesh, as Christ speaks of the eager desire. This is the prophecy of the lineage of Christ.
In addition, there are also other prophecies and teachings of Christ. For as Noah spoke in the foregoing words of the conclusion or statute of wrath, which the Son of God brought forth out of the counsel of the Trinity immediately after the fall against the serpent and his seed, so he testifies in these words of the other part, namely, of the conclusion or statute of grace, which the Son of God also brought forth out of the bosom of the Father in Paradise, when he refreshed and calmed the fallen Adam with this most consoling voice: "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." It contains
but such statute (or way, Ps. 2) the first doctrine of the incarnation of the Son of God in itself, and is drawn to a certain line, namely of Shem etc. Afterwards also here is to be heard of the Godhead of this son of Shem. He will be a son of man, born of a virgin, but also the son of God. Therefore he calls him Elohe, because the whole Godhead dwells bodily in him. And he calls him Jehovah, who, though he is another person than the Father, yet by nature and essence he is the true God, true man. This he received from Eve's confession through the Holy Spirit, who also confessed that this man, or the promised seed, was the Messiah. Just as Jeremiah and others gave this name to Messiah afterwards. In the word "blessed" not only the divine service of Messiah is described, that he is to be praised, preached and called as true man and Son of God, as the angel says to Mary Luc. 1, but also the whole office, kingdom, and noblest service of faith, with the effect. For he alone is called blessed to praise, to call and to preach.
But he who is to be preached must also have a kingdom, people and church. The angel clearly says: "Whose dominion shall be without end"; or, the Lord God Shem will be praised and preached until the end of the world, and will have a church and multitude, in which the blessed promise of the revelation and forgiveness of sins will resound. For the following text of Japheth completely confesses that Noah prophesied here about the tents of Shem. Therefore he speaks here full of joy, not only in general of the people of God, which should be gathered from the Gentiles and Jews, but also in particular of the preservation of the descendants of Shem until the birth of Christ. The patriarch sees in the Spirit the excellent glory of the Semites, their victories and prophets until the birth of Christ, and in Japheth the preservation of the Catholic Church until the end of the world. Zechariah no doubt begins his song from this prophecy etc. These are the great mysteries that the patriarch received from the spirit and the promise to Adam and the confession of Eve, and the voice of God at the
Altar Noah, Cap. 8, was revealed, where it is clearly taught: God is reconciled through this man, who will be born of Shem.
Therefore, the Benedictus (praised be) must not only be understood in a suffering way, that the Messiah should be praised, preached and glorified, and that he is full of all spiritual blessings, but also that this blessed (or praised) one will come in the name of the Lord, Ps. 118 etc., and that he will bless all generations of the earth out of his fullness, and out of his essential as well as shared blessing power. For he is also called Redeemer (or a helper), Zech. 9, not only because he was snatched out of death by life and salvation, but also because he communicates his salvation, righteousness, wisdom, glory to us. So also here "blessed", meaning that he blesses us and makes us partakers of his blessing through faith etc. The Son of God, as the interpreter of the Holy Trinity, not only brought forth this counsel of grace (or statute) from the bosom of his Father in Paradise, but also explained it afterwards and made it ever clearer. Noah knows expressly and clearly that the promised seed is Jehovah's elohe; Jacob that he is an embryo or female child in the womb; Isaiah that he is the virgin's son. So, since the Word (the independent one) speaks to Abraham, he declares himself in this way of speaking: "In your seed", which is Christ, "all the nations of the earth will be blessed", or will have from his Gospel through faith forgiveness of sins, reconciliation, righteousness and the same imputation, eternal life, protection and also other gifts in this life.
"For Canaan will be his 1) servant."
Christ will throw all enemies under his feet, they will not succumb. This is the spiritual blessing of the Church, which Paul speaks of in Eph. 1. It has been prepared for us and distributed to us by the giving God through the giving Seed, and revealed to us in the blessing and in the sweet voice of the Gospel, that we also may receive the blessing justified, and become the redeemed of God and His children and heirs.
1) In the old edition: their.
So much of the materials of this saying, which are drawn from the power and meaning of the words, and the preceding and following text and good concluding speeches. They are similar to the faith, agreeing with the prophets and apostles and Catholic Church testimonies.
Of the formalities it is not necessary to say. The ancients used short speech and laconic expression; they also have their aborted sayings, which they call cabbalas, which were worthy of all reception and wanted to have a diligent interpreter. If one wants to call the last words a creed, prophecy or testament, he will not do wrong.
From the causes.
3 The interpreter should see who is speaking. A patriarch, prophet, bishop. By what impulse? The Holy Spirit, says St. Peter. By whose sending? By direct sending of the Son of God, chap. 9. By what cause? Noah, who wants to reveal the wrath of God against the hardened and unbelieving son, so mocked the Son of God in his loins, threatens with eternal judgment or subjection taken from the curse of the serpent, Gen. 3.
On the other hand, since he [vv. 26. 27.] wants to teach and comfort even the most obedient sons who worship and kiss the Son of God in the loins of the Father, he prophesies of great ge
as if he said: As Canaan and all who do not believe in the Son of God will be eternally subject to Christ and his brothers, Ps. 110. 1 Cor. 15, so you, Shem and Japheth, will be blessed and have descendants for eternal life. You will reign at the right hand of the Father with the blessed Son of God, because you believe in the Son of God who will spring from your descendants.
The end purpose.
4 Here the interpreter thinks that this was testified by the Holy Spirit through the patriarch, that the Son of God should be known, and that men should believe and be saved through the word. For what was written before is written now, and that the church, which is founded on the apostles and prophets, has firm and certain testimonies of its religion, and it is known how the pure doctrine of the Son of God was brought forth and propagated by the Holy Spirit in the prophets from one century to another, until it has come to us at the end of the world. For this also is written by Moses, as also John says, that we believe Jesus to be Christ, the Son of God and of the Virgin, our King, High Priest and Blessing Man, and that through faith in His written and preached Word we have eternal life. Amen.