*Not that the autosoteric idea ever really satisfied the religious heart. Cf. Т. К. Glover, “Conflict of Religions, etc.” p. 67: “That salvation was not from within was the testi- mony of every man who underwent the taurobolium. So far as such things can be, it is established by the witness of every religious mind that, whether the feeling is just or not, the feeling is invincible that the will is inadequate and that religion begins only where the Stoic idea of saving oneself by one's own resolve and effort is finally abandoned."
° Similarly also Kant, Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft (Gesammelte Schriften 1907. Bd. vr): “If the moral law demands of us that we become better men, it follows unavoidably that it must be possible for us so to become."
“On Nature and Grace," 49.
1 “The Unfinished Work,” i. 91.
SE Paul,” E. T. pp. 72; 73.
°“That it was possible to keep the whole law is an idea that is frequent in the Talmud. Abraham, Moses, and Aaron, were held to have done so. R. Chanina says to the
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^ angel of Death, ‘Bring me the Book of the Law, and see whether there is anything written in it which I have not kept.’ (Schoettg. i. pp. 160, 161. See also Edersheim, ‘L. and Т.’ i. p. 336)."—Alfred Plummer, Com. on Luke xviii, 21 (p. 423).
“cf, A. C. Headlam, “St. Paul and Christianity" 1913, p. 138. “Тһе Reformation Controversy was really the old controversy of Faith and Works. Practically (however much it might be concealed in theory) the medieval system taught salvation by works.”
" Köstlin, “Theology of Luther," E. T. i. 479.
A. T. Jorgensen, Theol. Stud. und Krit. 1910, 83. pp. 63-82; cf. Jahresbericht for 1910, 1912, p. 590.
З Kóstlin, ii. 301: “I do not know any book of mine that is right, unless, perhaps, De Servo Arbitrio and the Catechism.” This was written in 1537.
13a «The Necessity of Reforming the Church,” in “Tracts,” E. T. p. 134. This was written in 1544.
192159.
The statement as to the true doctrine of the will involved in this last sentence, is noteworthy.
Се Jean Barnaud, Pierre Viret, 1911, p. 505: ''Bolsec, who was the first to raise himself against it [the doctrine of the Reformers] began by contesting that divine election was taught by the Scriptures, and then proclaimed the uni- versality of grace, and, attacking Calvinistic determinism, denied that the fall had entirely deprived man of his free will. From these premises, he concluded that faith, with men, results from the exercise of free will, wounded and corrupted, but not absolutely destroyed and made incapable of doing the good, and consequently that election does not precede faith, and that salvation, finally, finds its supreme cause not only in the will of God but in a free determination of man.”
"See E. F. Fischer, Melanchthons Lehre von d. Bekehrung.
[ 188 |
NOTES
Eine Studie zum Entwickelung der Ansicht Melanchthons über Monergismus und Synergismus. 1905.
'® For what follows see E. Böhl, Beitrage zur Geschichte der Reformation in Oesterreich. p. 26ff.
19 Schweitzer, Centraldogmen, i. p. 503.
20 р. 509.
*! Loci, 1610, ed. Preuss, ii., р. 866.
2 Köstlin, i., p. 326.
® Christliche Dogmatik, ii., 1898, p. 146.
"^ On the other hand even Th. Häring, “Тһе Christian Faith," E. T. 1913. p. 347, says, "Any suspicion that our God may be a good but impotent will, a moral genius with- out being master of the world, destroys the roots of all re- ligious power.”
в "9 w [un к.
* A. S. Martin, art. "Election," in Hastings’ “Encyc. of Religion and Ethics." V. 1912. p. 261a.
32 «The Authority of Christ." 1906, p. 140.
роз;
8 p. 349,
3 Similarly, Lewis Е. Stearns, "Present Day Theology," 1890, p. 416, declares roundly: “Тһе only power that can tear a soul away from Christ is that soul's own free will.” This is as strong an assertion as possible that the soul's own free will can tear the soul away from Christ. And from that we must infer, if we may trust Rom. viii, 39, that free will is not a created thing, and indeed, to speak the truth, (Rom. viii, 38) that it has no existence, whether actual or prospective. If our free will is stronger than Christ's hold upon us it is omnipotent, for he is omnipotent, and no one could be saved.
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THE PLAN OF SALVATION
^
% p. 300.
3 p. 370.
3 A. S. Martin, as cited p. 261: “Тһе belief of the bulk of the Christian Church in all ages, that man's destiny is in his own hands."
39 Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft (Gesammelte Schriften, 1907, vi, p. 45).
9 Ро.
“E, Schäder, Uber das Wesen des Christentums und seine modernen Darstellungen, 1904, quoted by A. Schlatter, Beitrage z. Forderung d. christ. Theologie, 1904, p. 39.
? William Temple, in “Foundations,” 1913, p. 237.
EDO BD 2560:
* “Morning by Morning," p. 14.