Chapter XVIIIConclusion of the Work

[p. 100] From all that has been said above we conclude this whole argument by a kind of corollary, as follows: Thesis XXXIX. Therefore the form of our theology is indeed one in itself, as we said before; but in us it is now manifold, and will be until, coming together into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, we become a perfect man and are raised together to the measure of the stature of the Church, which is the fullness of Christ. In these words we have laid down first the nature of our theology, and then its end, from the words of the Apostle himself. As to its nature (as was set out before), we show that our theology, which God graciously reveals to us, stands thus: in itself, as theology comprehended perfectly in its instrument, Holy Scripture, through the Spirit of God, it has one essential form, wholly perfect, wholly and perfectly set forth, and wholly constant and immutable in itself and in all its parts; but in us, who are being transformed day by day by the Spirit of the Lord, neither the whole mode of that whole form, nor that mode perfect, is present or dwells, nor perfectly; but only parts of it, and those imperfect, and imperfectly perceived by us; as God tempers the mode of his revelations to the mode of our slightness, for the declaring of his marvelous light and the praise of his glorious grace. But although the communication of this wisdom at present is such that it carries us forward by degrees and increments, it must not be supposed that it can ever happen that we climb to its summit while we remain in this mortal life, nor be thought that the perfection of this wisdom will come to us; rather we must think that, as through the whole course of this life our weakness and ignorance are diminished in their progressions, so this wisdom, conversely, grows in us in its order and degree. Nor can it happen to us otherwise. For since this theology of ours, which can indeed be in us, is a small part of that theology which God has expressed perfectly in the Scriptures, and that theology revealed in the Scriptures is a symbol and riddle of that which we shall attain by the vision of God face to face in heaven, it certainly cannot be that, through the whole course of this wretched life, the further we advance, the more we do not feel our ignorance and slightness, and grow weary of this slightness of ours; so that by true humility, which holds the first place, and indeed every place, in theology, we may rise to that loftiness of heavenly and divine things and fix the whole edge of our mind most earnestly on that end.

Now there is a twofold end most closely joined to us (for we shall say nothing here of the highest end), of which we reach the one in some manner in this age and shall attain the other most perfectly in the age to come. The end set before us in this life is the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, toward which unity in the communion of saints all must come together, and all strain every nerve, as much as we can, to gather its fruit. Faith is that by which we lay hold of Christ with will and most devout zeal, and by which [col. 1423] we are carried toward him with our whole motion; knowledge is that by which Christ shows himself to us to be discerned and dwells within, in our minds. The unity of these gifts among all of us who are Christians is the proximate and most closely joined end at which we must aim in this life: that by knowledge we may perceive Christ, and by faith be moved, carried, and seized toward Christ with a most holy motion, so that this saying of Christ may be true in us, that the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force (Matt. 11:12). From this proximate end, to which piety toward God bids each of us attend, the other end, common to all, cannot fail to come to be in the age to come [p. 101] by the power of God: namely, that we all become together one perfect man in Christ Jesus (Eph. 4:13). For since Christ is our head, into whom we must grow up in all things, and from whom the whole body fitly joined together by that which every joint of his supply supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every member, maketh increase suited to this body unto the edifying of itself in love, surely what God willed to be furnished to the natural body by nature, the same he will furnish to this mystical body, established by his wonderful grace, according to his ordering. And therefore we must both believe that we shall attain this benefit in Christ our head, and through the whole time of this mortal life so use the holy preaching of the Gospel as to bring everything to bear on this joining together of the saints, on this work of the ministry, and on the edifying of the body of Christ, until we are raised together to that just measure of spiritual stature which God has prepared, most glorious, for his Church in Christ. For in respect of this the whole Church, which is the body of Christ, is called his fullness or complement (Eph. 1 and 4). And this is the fullest glory, which God has revealed to us by the word of his theology and will consummate by the power of his Spirit: that Christ, the eternal Son of God, in whom it pleased the Father that all the fullness of the Godhead should dwell bodily, has deigned by his divine kindness to establish so great a communion with us that we are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power; and he in turn obtains his complement in us, in that glory which he will keep eternally for himself, and for us in himself.

Since these things are so, we must hold that saving wisdom which we call theology in the highest esteem, and keep that notable example of the Apostle continually before our eyes, so that we may all say with him, by the sure testimony of the Spirit: What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all these things which the world honors, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of works, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, I say, which is of God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, into which Christ has gone before us for our justification (Phil. 3:7–8, etc.). May that God, best and greatest, who begot his eternal Son Jesus Christ our Redeemer by eternal generation, and by eternal predestination sanctifies him for us, to be our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; may he also give us the spirit of wisdom, so that, advancing by his power in the saving treasures of this knowledge and wisdom, we may grow into the unity of the faith and of the acknowledgment of him, until we become a perfect man, to the just measure of that stature which befits that most ample and most glorious body in Christ Jesus, our head and Savior, to his glory. Amen. [col. 1424]