John William Baier's
                        _Compendium of Positive Theology_
                           Edited by C. F. W. Walther
                                 Published by:
                 St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1877 


         [Translator's Preface. These are the major loci or topics of        
         John William Baier's _Compendium of Positive Theology_ as ed-
         ited by Dr. C. F. W. Walther. These should be seen as the
         broad outline of Baier-Walther's dogmatics, but please don't
         assume that this is all. Each locus usually includes copious
         explanatory notes and citations from patristics and other
         Lutheran dogmaticians.]


                                    Part One

                                  Chapter One

       On God.

       1. We commonly understand by the name "God" a being, most excellent
       of all things, than whom no one is actually able to consider better;
       or rather the first thing, that by him also he is the cause of all
       beings of other things, and he preserves and governs all things.

       2. Among the names of God, of which many occur in the Scriptures of
       the Old Testament, the name of YHWH stands out as essential and
       unspeakable.

       3. Similarly the Greek name "God" [theos], understood in a proper
       sense, not as if it were simply a name of dignity, is also the name
       of the divine nature.

       4. It is possible for the existence of God to be shown; (1) from a
       consideration of this universe, (2) from the testimony of the
       conscience and (3) from the consensus of people's testimonies, both
       Gentiles and Christians.

       5. However, that it might be rightly understood what God is, and
       who he is, that which applies to the divine essence  and attributes,
       and that which applies to the divine persons, ought to be distinctly
       seen and proved from Scripture.

       6. The essence of God is able to be described thus: God is a
       spiritual being subsisting by himself; or more briefly: God is an
       independent spirit.

       7. The divine attributes are divided into negative and positive.
       The negative attributes are: unity, simplicity, immutability,
       infinity, immensity, eternity.  The following pertain to the class
       of positive attributes: life, knowledge, wisdom, holiness, justice,
       truthfulness, power, goodness, perfection.

       8. The unity of God, when spoken of absolutely says that the
       essence of God is undivided, when spoken of exclusively says that
       we recognize God to be the only god, besides whom there is no other.

       9. The simplicity of God, spoken of absolutely, is that through
       which God is truly and really free from all composition.

       10. The immutability of God consists in this, that God is subject
       to no change neither according to being, nor according to accidents,
       nor according to place, nor according to will or purpose.

       11. The infinity of God's essence indicates this, that the essence
       of God is contained by no limits.

       12. The immensity of God consists in this, that the divine essence
       is not able to be measured or encompassed by any limit.

       13. The eternity of God, speaking absolutely, indicates the
       permanent existence or duration of God, without beginning and end
       and without any succession or change.

       14. The life of God, seen in the first act, indicates about the
       essence or nature of God, that he himself moves by a certain mode,
       or he is able to be received as a principal of vital or immanent
       operation; in the second act, it indicates that immanent operation
       that proceeds from the divine nature.

       15. The knowledge of God consists in this, that God by one single
       act knows himself and other things that are distinct from him,
       which are, and which are possible to be, everything according to
       his own proper being which  it may have in itself outside of God,
       knowing immediately through himself, without an intelligible
       species or discourse; on the contrary he knows not only those
       things which exist in truth or are visible, or from the necessity
       of nature, or contingently, through the free determination of the
       human will, but he also exactly understands those things which will
       be, if a condition is satisfied ins some way, which are however not
       future in acts, because the condition is not yet fulfilled.

       16. The wisdom of God indicates the most careful counsel of God, by
       which he changes all causes and effects distinctly in an admirable
       way to arrange and set them in order according to his  goal.

       17. Before we move forward to a consideration of the other
       attributes, something should be said about the will of God, or, in
       so far as the divine essence has itself through a mode of
       appetitive power, the ability by a recognition of the intellect to
       tend toward good, so that it wills it, and a knowledge of the bad,
       so that it avoids it.

       18. The causes which formally cause the acts of the divine will are
       not given, however virtually they are given as these causes:
       efficient, impulsive both internal and external, and also final.

       19. The will of God is distinguished as being natural and free. God
       is said to will the natural will, in those things he is not able
       not to will.  He is said to will the free will, in those things
       that is he also able not to will, or to will the opposite. The
       former he is said to will by reason of himself, the later by reason
       of the created thing.

       20. The free will of God is distinguished (1) as efficient and
       inefficient.  The efficient free will is said to be that by which
       God wills something to be done, the inefficient free will is that,
       by which something is pleasing to God in himself, but which he does
       not intend to effect. The efficient free will of God further is
       divided into absolute by which God wills something without
       condition, and conditional, by which he wills something under
       conditions. (2) The free will of God is also divided into the
       absolute, by which God wills something to be effected by his
       absolute power, or not being bound to secondary causes; and the
       ordered, by which God wills something to be effected, bound by his
       order, or by the secondary causes and a certain order of means
       instituted by him. (3) The free will of God is also distinguished
       as primary, or antecedent free will, by which he wills something
       from himself alone, or precisely from his natural inclination, and
       not by the ordinary reason of circumstances; and the secondary, or
       consequent free will, by which he wishes something by a
       consideration of the circumstances, or in view of other causes and
       conditions on the part of visible creatures, to whom he wills
       something.

       21. In a peculiar sense a decree of God may be said to be absolute,
       when it excludes any consideration of an impulsive cause apart from
       God, to which is opposed non-absolute decrees, which are decrees
       when the external impulsive cause comes from outside of God and is
       the virtual cause of the decree.

       22. There is also a distinction in the will of God between the
       signed and the well-pleased. The signed will of God is said to be
       when the name of will is ascribed to the effect or the object of
       the divine will, as by a sign of some will in God. The well-pleased
       will of God indicates the act of the divine will itself, by which
       God wills something. From there, it also extends to the fact that
       the distinction is analogical. However being prepared, indeed the
       signed will is of such a kind as you might imagine, to which the
       well-pleased will is opposed, as a sign out of the institution
       ought to signify.

       23. Among the attributes of the will of come first comes justice,
       by which God partly is just in himself, as we call him by the
       special word sanctity, and it introduces the correctness of the
       divine will, by which all things which are right and good, he wills
       conformably to his eternal laws; partly in order to others, that is
       that he prescribes to creatures the appropriate laws and he
       arranges them and he governs, also he keeps and fulfills the
       promises made to humans, and then the good are rewarded and the bad
       punished.

       24. The truthfulness of God follows, through which God is unchanging
       in speaking truly and in keeping promises.

       25. The power of God follows, through which the divine essence is
       effective in working and producing something outside himself, and
       indeed everything, whatever is possible in any way is made by his
       power, and for the part of his operations it does not lead to
       imperfection.

       26. The power of God is usually distinguished as ordered and
       absolute.  The ordered power of God is said to be that power which
       God by decree or law determines something to be worked in a certain
       way.  The absolute power of God is called that which is agreeable
       to itself, and is not determined by some previous decree or law.
       The ordered will of God one is able to resist, the absolute will of
       God one is not able to resist.

       27. The goodness of God agrees both absolutely and in itself, which
       is itself his perfection, or the essence of God, in so far as he
       contains all perfections in himself, or formally, or eminently; and
       respectively, or in relation to creatures, to whom God is good, in
       so far as efficiently he produces all created goodness; and this
       created goodness is according to his perfection, which is an idea
       or an example for created perfection; also he entices or moves love
       and desire in his own, as something of the highest good.

       28. Because it pertains to the divine persons, most simply it is
       held, because the essence and all the perfections of the divine
       being are common without division or multiplication, yet with these
       there are three distinct persons, which Scripture calls Father, Son,
       and Holy Spirit.

       29. To a more full declaration of this mystery it is observed: (I)
       the Father from the Son, the Son from the Father, and the Holy
       Spirit from both are really different, so that truly one is the
       Father, another the Son, and another is the Holy Spirit.

       30. Then (II) it is observed: Not only the Father, but also the Son
       and the Holy Spirit are true and eternal God.

       31. Then (III) it is observed: that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
       are not three Gods, but one God.

       32. In regard to this mystery so that the sophistries of the
       heretics could more distinctly be shut out and excluded, the old
       Christians said it in this way - the westerners or Latins that
       there were three persons in one essence [tres personas in una
       essentia), and the easterners or Greeks that there were three
       hypostases and one ousia (treis upostaseis kai mian ousian); in
       what manner the fathers of Nicea especially spoke about the Son,
       they said that he was or ought to be recognized as homoousion
       [omoousion] to the Father, that is coessential or consubstantial.

       33. By the word essence or ousia is understood that divine nature,
       such as is in God absolutely, which one divine nature is with the
       attributes most simply one and only, and thus also when speaking of
       the three persons it is nothing unless one divine nature.

       34. By the word person or hypostasis  is understood that some
       underlying intelligence is understood, thus in this topic is
       indicated that are three subsistences or personalities in one
       divine essence, and so there are three underlying intelligences in
       God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

       35. However, although Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not expressed
       in Scripture as three hypostases, persons, or three substrates,
       however the thing itself, indicated by these words, is certainly
       included in Scripture.

       36. However truly in this life we are not able to understand or
       explain in what way one most simple essence is three persons, for
       what reason they are able to be from itself one essence, yet among
       itself they are really three distinct persons: however because it
       is revealed we believe both.

       37. Otherwise the divine persons are distinguished by personal acts,
       by the personal properties, and conceptions.

       38. The personal acts are two, generation and spiration.

       39. The generation is an act inside of God, by which God the Father
       from his substance from eternity produces the Son.

       40. The spiration is an act inside of God, by which God the Father
       and the Son at the same time from out of his substance from eternity
       produce the Holy Spirit.

       41. That there is a difference between the generation of the Son
       and the spiration of the Holy Spirit is certain; however  the way
       in which they are different we are not able to define more fully.

       42. The personal properties are three: Paternity, filiation and
       procession (thus strictly speaking), or a passive spiration.

       43. The conceptions specially thus said are two: the act of being
       generated, and an active spiration.

       44. The Father is the first person of the Divinity, not begotten,
       not proceeding, but from eternity from his substance begetting the
       Son, and with the Son from eternity breathing the Holy Spirit.

       45. The Son is the second person of the Divinity, from eternity
       begotten by the Father, from whom and with the person of the Father
       proceeds from eternity the Holy Spirit.

       46. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Divinity, not
       begotten, but proceeding from eternity from the Father and the Son.

       47. God by reason of the essence and persons seen at the same time
       is able to be described as follows: that he is a spiritual being,
       by himself, subsisting in Father, son, and Holy Spirit.




       _________________________________.__________________________________ 
                                       
       This text was translated by Rev. Theodore Mayes and is copyrighted         
       material, (c)1996, but is free for non-commercial use or distribu-
       tion, and especially for use on Project Wittenberg. Please direct 
       any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther
       Library at Concordia Theological Seminary.

                         E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu

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