He reproaches Luther with having in later days failed to distinguish between the outward Word or preaching and the inward living Word of God. The blunt assertion of the preachers—which was encouraged by “Luther’s unapostolic treatment of the problem of Christian experience”[577]—that faith referred solely to the written Word and was elicited merely by preaching,[578] leads in practice to neglect of those passages of Scripture which speak of the Divine character of faith and of its transmission by the Holy Ghost; owing to the lack of a faith really felt, there was also wanting any “holiness of life worked by the Spirit, and any moral justice and sanctification.”[579] _Schwenckfeld on the Popular Church and the New Divine Service_ The system of a State Church then being set up, the externalism of the Lutheran Popular Church and the worship introduced were naturally looked at askance by the promoter of the Church Apart of true believers; at the same time his strictures are not unduly biassed.[580] He looks at the matter from the standpoint of Lutheran freedom, or as Carl Ecke expresses it, of “the early Christian individualism rediscovered by Luther.”[581] From this point of view Schwenckfeld can detect in the official Lutheran Church only a shadow of the Apostolic Church. Not merely the principle of the multitude, but also the appeal to the authorities for help and coercion was opposed to the spirit of Christ, at least according to all he had learnt from Luther. “He raises the question whether that can possibly be the true Church of Christ where human coercion, force, commands and prohibitions, rather than Christian freedom and willingness, rule over faith and conscience.... The secular sword has no place in the Churches of Christ, but belongs to the secular authorities for the punishment of the wicked.... As little as it is in the power of the authorities to bestow the faith on anyone, to strengthen or increase it, so little does it befit it to force, coerce or urge.... What the authorities do here [in matters of faith] is nothing but violence, insolence and tyranny.”[582] But “we always want to attract the great crowd!”[583] “They saw the great multitude and feared lest the churches should dwindle away.”[584] How were they to keep “Mr. Omnes, the common people, faithful to their churches without the help of the secular arm?”[585] They do not even think of first honestly instructing the magistrates how to become Christians and what the duty of a Christian is.... I am unable in conscience to agree with those who make idols of them so speedily and persuade them that they already have that, which their own conscience tells them they have never received.[586]