Methodus Sacrae Scripturae in publicis tum praelectionibus tum concionibus utiliter atque intelligenter tractandae

Likewise law and promise are things mutually contrary, not merely diverse or opposed, as the same Paul teaches in Romans 11, verse 6: And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. In the Epistle to the Colossians 1, verse 16, he confirms the ἀξίωμα dignity/authority of Christ above all creatures. For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things, I say, were created by Him and for Him. In the Gospel according to John, it occurs in almost infinite places. Let this now stand for all, which is in chapter 6, verse 55: For my flesh is meat indeed, etc. Therefore, a minister or doctor, treating these passages, if he immediately judges them to be an αἰτιολογία rendering of cause, warns the listener of the order and series of the whole speech. There is nothing more frequent in Scripture than this method of order.

Τάξις order is the methodical and coherent connection of things among themselves, so that those things which are prior and more general by the order of nature are spoken of in the prior place, and those which are posterior and more specific are treated in the posterior place. But if those things which are prior by reason of time are treated first, as in the narration of history and events, it is also τάξις order. They also call this ἀκολουθία sequence. Thus, in Ephesians 5, verses 21 and 22, Paul, after he dealt with the general subjection of Christians to one another, descends to particular precepts and to those species by which a wife is subject to a husband, a son to a father, and a servant to a master. The same in the Epistle to the Colossians 3, verses 17 and 18, after he described the duties of all Christians generally, he treats the particular duties of a wife

towards