In 1526 Schwenckfeldt wrote to Paul Speratus: Since by the preaching of
the Gospel as set forth by Luther so few people amended their lives, the
thought had occurred to him that "something must still be lacking,
whatever that may be." Endeavoring to supply this defect, Schwenckfeldt
taught: Grace cannot be imparted by any creature, bodily word, writing,
or sacrament, but only by the omnipotent, eternal Word proceeding from
the mouth of God. Whatever is external is a mere symbol and image of
God, able neither to bring God into the soul nor to produce faith or an
inward experience of divine life. "Mark well" says he, "God is not in
need of external things and means for His internal grace and spiritual
action. For even Christ, according to the flesh, was a hindrance to
grace and [the Spirit] of God, and had to be translated into the
heavenly mode of being that the grace of the Holy Spirit might come to
us.... Whoever endeavors to come from without and through external means
into the inner [the heart] does not understand the course of grace. God
works without all means and pictures.... Man must forget and drop
everything, and be free and tranquil for the inbreathing [_Einsprechen_,
inspiration], and be drawn away from all creatures, giving himself up to
God altogether."
Schwenckfeldt continues: The Holy Spirit enters the quiet soul only
through the eternal Word, which "proceeds from the mouth of God without
means and not at all through Scripture, external Word, Sacrament, or any
creature in heaven or on earth. God wants to have this honor reserved
solely to Himself through Himself [without any means] He wants to pardon
man, teach him, impart the Holy Spirit to him, and save him. He does not
want to grant His grace, and effect illumination and salvation through
any creature; for even the flesh of Christ was not a sufficient
instrument for this purpose before He was glorified, translated into the
heavenly places, and removed from our eyes." "Scripture is for the
external man; the Holy Spirit teaches everything to the elect inwardly
and is not in need of Scripture to give faith to them and to save them."
Schwenckfeldt, who employed the term "revelation" for this immediate
operation of God, was inconsistent in not rejecting Scripture,
preaching, etc., altogether. But when admitting these, he adds that he
distinguishes "God's own inner work from the external service."
Self-evidently, these views concerning the means of grace had a
corrupting influence also on other doctrines. Saving faith, according to
Schwenckfeldt, is not trust in God's promise of pardon for Christ's
sake, but an immediate mystical relation of the soul to God.
Justification, says he, "is not only forgiveness and non-imputation of
sin, but also renewal of the heart." "We must seek our justification and
righteousness not in Christ according to His first state [of
humiliation], in a manner historical," but according to His state of
glorification, in which He governs the Church. In order to enhance the
"glory of Christ" and have it shine and radiate in a new light,
Schwenckfeldt taught the "deification of the flesh of Christ," thus
corrupting the doctrine of the exaltation and of the person of Christ in
the direction of Monophysitism. And the more his views were opposed, the
more he was enamored of, and engrossed by, them, calling himself the
"confessor and lover of the glory of Christ."
Concerning the Lord's Supper, Schwenckfeldt taught that the deified
humanity of Christ is really imparted and appropriated, not indeed
through bread and wine, but immediately (without the intervention of any
medium), internally, spiritually. The words of institution mean: My
body, which is given for you, is what bread is, a food, _i.e._, a food
for souls; and the new testament in My blood is a chalice, _i.e._, a
drink for the elect to drink in the kingdom of God. Baptism, says
Schwenckfeldt, is the "baptizing of the heavenly High Priest Jesus
Christ, which occurs in the believing soul by the Holy Ghost and by
fire. Infant baptism is a human ordinance, not merely useless, but
detrimental to the baptism of Christ." (Tschackert, 159ff.)