Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments, in a different way of looking at it, are the formal cause, the effect, and function of the church. They are the formal cause, namely of the church to be established and preserved, and the function and effect of the church [that is] already established, insofar as it teaches and informs others; therefore these marks mark and point out the church both from cause to effect and from effect to cause. - Quenstedt, *The Church* p. 100