2. The Relationship of divine providence to the causae secundae.
By causae secundae we understand the means by which divine providence operates. God works, and the means work. Ps. 127:1: The Lord builds the house, and the workers build the house. But the relationship between the effect of the means and the effect of God is this: the effects are not coordinated, but subordinated, and subordinated to the extent that the means work only that, and work only as much and as long as God works through them. For, "Where the Lord buildeth not the house, they labor in vain that build it." We can, of course, speak of a natural nature, movement, power, and effect of creatures. But what is natural to creatures, e.g., that the worm creeps, the man walks, the sun shines, the tree grows and bears fruit after its kind, the medicine heals, the bread nourishes, the watchman protects, etc., this is God's action on creatures (Dei in
So we must therefore realize that this also extends to the smallest things. It is not the case, therefore, that an earthly king takes care of all and every one of his subjects by a general decree, although there are many thousands of things that the king does not know. God knows the smallest things and takes care of them, as Christ, the mouth of truth, assures. It is true that reason thinks that it is indecent to the majesty of God that he should lower himself even to the least of his creatures. The heathen Pliny thinks that the divine majesty is defiled when it cares for despised things. But these are foolish thoughts, as they are also cherished by the great church teacher Jerome. 1. The glory of his infinite goodness, when he embraces with the arms of his providence both the lowest worm and the highest angel. If it is not indecent for God to create them, why should it be indecent for him to preserve them? 2. The glory of his power and wisdom. The power of God is no less visible in the creation of the gnat than of an elephant; so also in its preservation. Wisdom shows its excellence in directing and guiding creatures, which themselves do not know the purpose of their being, to such. There is also no difference among the creatures in itself, but it arises only from the relation to us; e.g. one believes that a worm is more contemptible than a lion. This, of course, as we regard it, is better than a worm; but, if we disregard the relation, the least worm has as much excellence in its kind as a lion. For this consists only in a certain nature of the parts of which the body is composed. God also makes no burden, as one would like mine. His infinite mind cannot be overloaded nor weighed down."
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creaturas influxus). Gerhard says in regard to this point: 1484) "What is more natural to man than that he moves? And yet we move in God, Acts 17:28. What is more natural to the sun than that it should rise day by day? And yet God Ανατέλλει τον ήλιον, Matt. 5:45. Therefore, although to individual things their attribute is naturally given (indita), yet they actuate the same and can actuate the same only in such a way that they receive their essence and life (essentientur et vegetentur) through the divine power that I speak thus. Ps. 104:29-30: "You hide your face, and they are terrified; you take away their breath, and they perish and return to dust. Thou sendest forth thy breath, and they are created; and thou renewest the form of the earth. Deut. 8:3 and Matt. 4:4 say that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. This not only teaches us that God can nourish and sustain man without natural means, but also reminds us that the power of nourishment is not so inherent in bread that it can nourish man even after the withdrawal of the Word of God, by which bread was first created and received its power of nourishment. The uninterrupted action of the word, which as it were creates and sustains, is necessary for the bread to exercise (exserat) the nutritive power given to it. The same can and must be said in the field of medicine. Man does not become healthy through the herbs, but through the Word of God, which originally gave the herbs that power and still today "instills" (instillat) it, as it were. This is also the meaning of our table prayers ("Say the blessing on the gifts" etc.) and the prayer we say in sickness before taking a medicine. This is also what that doctor wanted to express when he said in regard to a patient he had treated: "I have bound him, God has healed him."
To hold this truth, the Lutheran doctrines say that the action of God and the action of the means are not duae actioness, but una numero actio. The action of God and the action of the means are neither to be divided according to the extent, as if it were half to God and half to the means, nor to be separated according to the time, as if God first worked and then
1484) Loci, L. De Provid., § 62, 63.
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afterwards and later the means or the creatures worked according to a power put into them before.1485) In order to reject the temporally separated effect, the dogmatists still expressly say that the effect of the causae secundae is not the consequence of an actio Dei praevia (a preceding effect of God), but the result of a continuus Dei in creaturas influxus (an uninterrupted effect in the creatures and through the creatures)1486) To hold this is of great importance for Christian faith and Christian life. If we hold that the effect of God and the effect of the causae secundae are not to be separated, but coincide in extent and time, then, looking at ourselves, we speak with Job 10:8, "Thy hands have wrought and made me," and confess with Luther in the Small Catechism, "I believe that God created me [not merely Adam] together with all creatures, gave me body and soul, eyes, ears and all members, reason and all senses, and still sustains me." Although we have from our parents as causae secundae the soul and also the body according to all its parts, yet at the same time we know that God is our Creator and Father. With respect to all those born of parents, what Luther says applies:1487) "It is God who makes the skin; it is he who also makes the bones; it is he who makes the hair on the skin; it is he who also makes the marrow in the bones; it is he who makes every bit of the hair; it is he who makes every bit of the marrow; indeed, he must make everything, both bit and whole." Further:1488) "He that made man of the earth, he maketh man of the seed of parents every day." In order to reject the idea that God, if he works through means, is separated from the world through these means, Luther says:1489) "God does not send out officials or angels when he creates or sustains something, but all such things are the work of his divine power itself. But if he is to create and maintain it, he must be there and make and maintain his creature both in the most intimate and in the most extraneous." Quenstedt wants to express the same when he says to deism, which inserts the "laws of nature" between God and the world, separating them:1490) Falsum
1485) So Durandus († 1334), Taurellus († 1606), also Arminian. In Quenstedt I, 782.
1486) Quenstedt I, 780.<w:t xml:space="preserve">1487) St. L. XX, 804.<w:t xml:space="preserve">1488) I, 155.
1489) XX, 804.<w:t xml:space="preserve">1490) Systema I, 781.
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est secundam causam [the means by which God acts] mediare inter primam causam [God] et effectum, cum aeque immediate effectus dependeat a causa prima sicut a secunda. As for the "laws of nature," they are not something distinct from the will and action of God, but God's will and effect itself in its relation to existence and the action of creatures.1491) This has already been pointed out in the doctrines of God and especially in the description of miracles.