1. Controversy on the Question of Grace.—It is now for us to consider the principles at issue in the Reformation. Luther at the first began his opposition to the pope by denouncing indulgences, and there can be no question but he and every other honest Christian had just cause of complaint and indignation against this infamous traffic, and against the church for permitting it. Yet it cannot be denied that there was a wide difference between the doctrine of the Catholic church respecting indulgences [see note 1, end of section] and the things taught by the infamous John Tetzel. This is evident from the fact that Tetzel with other agents of the pope were censured for their over zeal and excesses in dealing in indulgences.^[19] Miltitz, whom the pope had appointed to treat with Luther to bring about his reconciliation with the church, meeting with Tetzel at Leipsic, twice rebuked him with the greatest severity before the bishops of his province, on account of his iniquitous proceedings in the sale of indulgences, and he finally died neglected and alone—"deserted by all the world." [See note 2, end of section.]

2. These abuses in the sale of indulgences and the other corruptions which had crept into the church formed a just cause of complaint; but they were not the true point at issue in the controversy. Some time before he opposed indulgences, Luther—if we may believe D'Aubigne [Do-benya]—had imbibed ideas in respect to the part which the grace of God takes in the salvation of man that would have led him to oppose the church of Rome, if the abuses in the matter of indulgences had never existed. In order that the student may grasp this subject in its fullness, and the better understand this controversy between Luther and the Catholic church, we shall make a careful statement of the facts which enter into the question of God's grace and the free will of man.

1. Power of Deliberation—The mind is conscious of a power of deliberation, before the intellect passes the different motives of action, interests, passions, opinions, etc. The intellect considers, compares, estimates, and finally judges them. This is a preparatory work which precedes the act of will.

2. Liberty, Free Agency or Will.—When deliberation has taken place—when man has taken full cognizance of the motives which present themselves to him, he takes a resolution, of which he looks upon himself as the author, which arises because he wishes it, and which would not arise unless he did wish it—here the fact of agency is shown; it resides complete in the resolution which man makes after deliberation; it is the resolution which is the proper act of man, which subsists by him alone; a simple fact independent of all the facts which precede it or surround it.

3. Free Will, or Agency Modified—At the same time that man feels himself free, he recognizes the fact that his freedom is not arbitrary, that it is placed under the dominion of a law which will preside over it and influence it. What that law is will depend upon the education of each individual, upon his surroundings, etc. To act in harmony with that law is what man recognizes as his duty; it will be the task of his liberty. He will soon see, however, that he never fully acquits himself of his task, never acts in full harmony with his moral law. Morally capable of conforming himself to his law, he falls short of doing it. He does not accomplish all that he ought, nor all that he can. This fact is evident, one of which all may give witness; and it often happens that the best men, that is, those who have best conformed their will to reason, have often been the most struck with their insufficience.

4. Necessity of External Assistance—This weakness in man leads him to feel the necessity of an external support to operate as a fulcrum for the human will, a power that may be added to its present power and sustain it at need. Man seeks this fulcrum on all sides; he demands it in the encouragement of friends, in the councils of the wise; but as the visible world, the human society, do not always answer to his desires, the soul goes beyond the visible world, above human relations, to seek this fulcrum of which it has need. Hence the religious sentiment develops itself: man addresses himself to God, and invokes his aid through prayer.

5. Man Finds the Help he Seeks—Such is the nature of man that when he sincerely asks this support he obtains it; that is, seeking it is almost sufficient to secure it. Whosoever feeling his will weak invokes the encouragement of a friend, the influence of wise councils, the support of public opinion, or who addresses himself to God by prayer, soon feels his will fortified in a certain measure and for a certain time.

6. Influence of Spiritual World on Liberty—There are spiritual influences at work on man—the empire of the spiritual world upon liberty. There are certain changes, certain moral events which manifest themselves in man without his being able to refer their origin to an act of his will, or being able to recognize the author. Certain facts occur in the interior of the human soul which it does not refer to itself, which it does not recognize as the work of its own will. There are certain days, certain moments in which it finds itself in a different moral state from that which it was last conscious of under the operations of its own will. In other words, the moral man does not wholly create himself; he is conscious that causes, that powers external to himself act upon and modify him imperceptibly^[20]—this fact has been called the grace of God which helps the will of man, while others see in it the evidences of predestination.

3. The Pelagian View.—From these facts men arrive at different conclusions. Some regarding only the power of man to deliberate on any proposed course of conduct, and his ability to decide for himself what course he will pursue, ignoring the spiritual influences which operate on him, and taking no account of the aid which comes to man through prayer—believe that man's conduct depends entirely upon his will. "Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus," say they; and hence reject the fact of the grace of God and the influence it exerts on human conduct.

Such was the conclusion arrived at by Pelagius who flourished early in the fifth century. He asserted that human nature is not fallen—that there is no hereditary corruption, and that man having the power to do good has only to will in order to perform. His doctrine has been revised several times, and has drawn to it not a few believers.

4. Catholic View.—Others regarding all the facts elsewhere enumerated—man's power to deliberate, his ability to decide upon his course, his failure to do all that his reason teaches him it is his duty to do, his need of help from a source external to himself, the assistance he can and does obtain through prayer and, lastly, the influence of spiritual forces upon man—leads them to the conclusion that it is through a union of the grace of God and the free will of man that men arrive at last at righteousness. Such was the teaching of the Roman Catholic church.

5. Protestant View.—Others still, looking only upon the influence of the spiritual world on man, and noting how very far short he comes of doing all his reason teaches him it is his duty to do, conclude that man has no power whatsoever to do good of himself, that he can exercise no will to work righteousness until after the grace of God makes him righteous, and that it is that grace altogether which causes him both to will and to do good works.

6. Luther's Fundamental Doctrine.—Luther belonged to this last-named class. Long before he came to an open rupture with the pope, he taught the doctrine of predestination, and of salvation through faith alone:—"The excellent, infallible, and sole preparation for grace is the eternal election and predestination of God." "On the side of man there is nothing that goes before grace, unless it be impotency and even rebellion." "We do not become righteous by doing what is righteous; but having become righteous we do what is righteous."^[21] "Since the fall of man, free will is but an idle word; and if man does all he can he still sins mortally." "A man who imagines to arrive at grace by doing all that he is able to do adds sin to sin and is doubly guilty." "That man is not justified who performs many works; but he who, without works, has much faith in Christ."^[22] "What gives peace to our consciences is this—by faith our sins are no longer ours, but Christ's on whom God has laid them all; and, on the other hand, all Christ's righteousness belongs to us, to whom God has given it."^[23] Thus taught Luther, and this became the first, the main theological question of the reformation. "The point which the Reformer had most at heart in all his labors, contests and dangers," says a respectable authority, "was the doctrine of justification by faith alone."^[24] [Note 3, end of section.]

7. It is but just to the Reformer however, that it should be known that he did not himself reject good works, but on the contrary exhorted men to practice them; but he condemns those who did them with an idea that by them they would be justified, or that they were necessary to salvation. He held also that in order to do good works men must first be justified, and that good works done before justification were even sinful.^[25]

8. The Mischief of Luther's Doctrine.—Though Luther did not reject good works, and though he held that justifying faith would produce them, yet his doctrine has been the source of much mischief in the world. When it was charged by his vicar general, Staupitius, that his doctrines were the delight of debauches, and that many scandalous practices were the consequences of some of his publications, he could not deny the charge, but contented himself by saying, "I am neither afraid of such censorious representations, nor surprised to hear them."^[26] Luther's doctrine of salvation by faith alone, as stated by Melanchthon, with his approval, stands thus: "Man's justification before God proceeds from faith alone. This faith enters man's heart by the grace of God alone."^[27] This leaves man a passive creature in relation to his salvation. He is helpless to procure it; he can do nothing to hasten it; he is helpless; he must wait the divine workings of the grace of God. "As all things which happen," says Melanchthon, "happen necessarily, according to the divine predestination, there is no such thing as liberty in our wills."^[28] [Note 4, end of section.] Other followers of Luther, among them one Nicholas Amsdorf, went so far as to maintain that good works were a hindrance to salvation.^[29]

9. By denying the existence of human liberty, and maintaining that all things happen necessarily, the reformers, with Luther at their head, laid themselves open to the charges made by the partisans of the church of Rome, viz.: Their doctrine threw open a door to the most unbounded licentiousness since it furnished men with this defense for the crimes they committed—"We could do no other, our fate did not permit us to do otherwise." By saying that good works were not necessary to salvation, and assisted in no way to procure it, the Reformers took away the chief incentive to good works, and removed the principal restraint to the doing of evil.

10. Moreover, their doctrine rendered void the ordinances and works required by the gospel; neither repentance nor baptism, nor any other act of obedience to God is essential if salvation is by faith alone. To say that it is a doctrine adverse to the whole tenor of scripture, notwithstanding a few isolated passages depended upon by the Reformers and their successors to support it, is not necessary here. It is sufficient to remark that it is a doctrine which would render the commandments of God incompatible with the powers and capacity of his creatures; a doctrine which destroys at once the consistency of God and the moral responsibility of man; and therefore a doctrine most pernicious and dangerous to entertain. [See note 5, end of section.]

11. Luther on the Danger of his Doctrine.—It proved to be so even during the lifetime of Luther; for it led some of his followers to believe that Christ had abolished the moral law; and that Christians, therefore, were not obliged to observe it.^[30] Luther himself saw the danger of his doctrine and thus spoke of it:

If faith be preached, as of necessity it must be, the greater part of mankind will interpret the doctrine in a carnal way, and so understand spiritual liberty as to allow indulgences of the flesh. This we may see in all the ranks of life. All profess themselves to be evangelical; all boast of their Christian liberty; and yet give way to their lusts and passions, for example to covetousness, pride, envy, pleasures, and such like. Who discharges his duty faithfully? Who serves his brother in a true spirit of charity? The disgrace which such conduct brings on the profession of the gospel puts me sometimes so out of temper that I could wish these swine, that tread precious pearls under their feet were still under the tyranny of the pope; for it is impossible that a people so much resembling those of Gomorrah, should be kept in due subjection by the mild maxims of the gospel of peace.^[31]

12. It counts for nothing that Luther denounced this corrupt state of morals among his followers; it was the legitimate outgrowth of his fundamental doctrine—the doctrine of nearly all Protestants—of justification by faith alone, a faith which man had no part in generating, but which came through the grace of God alone. The tree of his planting produced bitter fruit; it was vain for him to proclaim against the fruit so long as he insisted that it was a good tree on which it grew.

13. Teaching of the Church of Rome on Justification.—The Catholic Church at the time, whatever errors in respect to other doctrines it entertained, held that salvation, justification before God, resulted through the exertion of man's free will, aided by the grace of God. It came through a union of faith and works on the part of man, and the rich outpouring of grace on the part of Deity; a doctrine which man is conscious of as operating upon and influencing human conduct, and at once in harmony with the whole tenor of revelation, and consonant with the great facts underlying the free will of man which have been already stated in this section.

14. Unfortunately for the Catholic Church, she did not stop here, but attached too great importance to external marks of repentance, to works of penance—to tears, fastings, mortifications of the flesh, and pilgrimages. Men were required to go barefooted, to wear coarse raiment next their bodies, to become exiles from their homes or to renounce the world and embrace a monastic life. Finally in the eleventh century voluntary whippings were added to these other punishments [see note 6, end of section]; and men learned to look upon these works of penance as purchasing a forgiveness of sins, and paid little attention to the inward regeneration of the heart. "As confession and penance are easier than the extirpation of sin and the abandonment of vice, many ceased contending against the lusts of the flesh, and preferred gratifying them at the expense of a few mortifications."^[32] Especially did this become the case when the doctrine was promulgated that substitutes could be hired to receive the punishment originally inflicted upon the offender, and monks and priests could be found willing to undergo it for a consideration.

15. The church trusted too much in the works of penance, and did not insist stoutly enough upon repentance—a godly sorrow which worketh a reformation of life. If the reformers went to one extreme in attributing man's justification wholly to the act of faith and the grace of God, the Catholic church went to the other in assigning too much value to works of penance and performances of human invention for the forgiveness of sins.

NOTES.

1. Indulgences to be Accompanied by Amendment of Life.—The doctrine and the sale of indulgences were powerful incentives to evil among an ignorant people. True, according to the church, indulgences could benefit those only who promised to amend their lives, and who kept their word. But what could be expected from a tenet invented solely with a view to the profit that might be derived from it? The vendors of indulgences were naturally tempted for the better sale of their merchandise to present their wares to the people in the most attractive and seducing aspect. The learned themselves did not fully understand the doctrine. All the multitude saw in them was that they permitted men to sin; and the merchants were not over eager to dissipate an error so favorable to their sale.—D'Aubigne.

2. Death of Tetzel.—While the proper nuncio (Miltitz) was negotiating a reconciliation in Germany, Tetzel, the wretched subaltern, whose scandalous conduct had so disgraced his employers, met with the reward which frequently awaits the ministers of iniquity. He found himself deserted by all the world. Miltitz in particular had treated him so roughly that this daring and boisterous instrument of papal avarice and extortion actually fell sick, wasted away, and at last died of a broken heart. A dreadful lesson! This unhappy man left the world, as far as appears, destitute of comfort in his own soul, after he had ministered a false peace to thousands.—Milner.

3. Luther on Justification by Faith.—I observe that the devil is continually attacking this fundamental article by means of his doctors, and that in this respect he can never cease or take any repose. Well, then, I, Doctor Martin Luther, unworthy herald of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, confess this article, that faith alone without works justifies before Gods; and I declare that it shall stand and remain forever in spite of the emperor of the Romans, the emperor of the Turks, the emperor of the Tartars, the emperor of the Persians—in spite of the pope and all the cardinals, with the bishops, priests, monks and nuns—in spite of kings, princes and nobles, and in spite of all the world and of the devils themselves; and that if they endeavor to fight against this truth they will draw the fires of hell upon their heads. This is the true and holy gospel, and the declaration of me, Doctor Luther, according to the teaching of the Holy Ghost.—D'Aubigne (Hist. Ref., vol I, p. 70.)

4. Effects of Predestination on the Mind.—To what purpose shall I labor in the service of God? If I am predestinated to death [that is, spiritual death] I shall never escape from it; and if I am predestined to life [that is, to salvation] even though I do wickedly, I shall, no doubt, arrive at eternal rest.—Raban, Quoted by Guizot.

5. Evil Results of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone.—The serious evil involved in Luther's doctrine of justification by faith without works is perhaps best seen in a quotation from Fletcher, of Madeley, the most able disciple of John Wesley and his successor Fletcher accuses one Richard Hill, Esq.—who accepted in its widest sense the doctrine of justification by faith alone—with saying: "Even adultery and murder do not hurt the pleasant children, but rather work for their good. God sees no sin in believers, whatever sin they may commit. My sins might displease God: my person is always acceptable to him * * * It is a most pernicious error of the schoolmen to distinguish sins according to the fact, and not according to the persons. Though I blame those who say, let us sin that grace may abound, yet adultery, incest and murder shall, upon the whole, make me holier on earth and merrier in heaven."—End of Religious Controversy, p. 90.

6. The Works in which Catholics Trusted.—In the eleventh century voluntary flagellations were superadded to these practices [fastings, pilgrimages, etc.]; somewhat later they became quite a mania in Italy, which was then in a very disturbed state. Nobles and peasants, old and young, even children of five years of age, whose only covering was a cloth tied round the middle, went in pairs by hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands, through the towns and villages, visiting the churches in the depth of winter. Armed with scourges, they flogged each other without pity, and the streets resounded with cries and groans that drew tears from all who heard them.—D'Aubigne.

REVIEW.

1. What difference existed between the teachings of the Catholic church and the conduct of its agents in the matter of indulgences? (Note 1.)

2. Was the sale of indulgences the chief cause of Luther's revolt from Rome?

3. What doctrines did Luther entertain which would at last have led him to oppose the Catholic church?

4. What is the power of deliberation?

5. Explain what liberty or free agency is.

6. In what way is man's will or free agency modified?

7. What is it that convinces man of the necessity of external help to aid his will?

8. What does man's experience teach him when he seeks external help?

9. What influence is man conscious of as operating upon him in moral and spiritual affairs? 10. State the Pelagian view on the subject of grace and free will.

11. State the Roman Catholic view.

12. State the Protestant view.

13. What was Luther's fundamental doctrine?

14. In what light did Luther hold good works?

15. What mischief arose out of Luther's doctrine?

16. What did Luther himself say respecting the danger of his doctrine?

17. What were the teachings of the Roman church on justification?

18. To what extreme did the church of Rome go in the matter of good works?

19. What was the nature of the works in which Roman Catholics trusted too much? (Note 6.)

20. What influence on morals did the doctrine have that substitutes could be employed to receive punishment for sins?