Wessel's career was largely determined by the fact that he was never bound by any vow, official station, or other similar obligation ; so that while he was great- ly interested in the conditions of the Church and the school, it was j-et possible for him to be to some extent an independent observer. He was thus able to com- mand the leisure required for a thorough examination of the matters he discussed, and the calmness essential to scholarly polemics. It must be added that he was natu- rally endowed with an independent spirit and sound judg- ment. Neither the superstitions of the Church nor the mj'sticism of the Brothers of the Common Life could overturn his balanced mind.
The writings of Wessel do not constitute a system. His method was somewhat aphoristical, involving the discussion of separate theses, and not affording any one central, fundamental principle from which the whole of his position might be understood. They hold a ground intermediate between scientific discussion, ascetical ap- plication, and reformatory polemical exhortation. His theology, like that of Zwingli, is largely determined by Platouism. The principal work he has furnished in this department is the De Providentia Dei, which con- ceives of God as the absolute cause, or, in other words, as independent Being. The pantheistic tendency of this idea of God is not sufficiently guarded against, but finds its rectification in the emphasis which Wessel else- where lays upon the idea that God is pure Being, dis- tinct from and above the world. In the doctrine of the Trinity the Father is the divine wisdom, the Son the divine reason, the Spirit the divine love. The Deit\' is the creative life, the original idea, which is necessarily active and compelled to glorify itself. This glorifving of the divine nature constitutes the Son, the Xoyof Trpwrof ; and in order that both may not be unem- ployed, the self-conscious and self-glorif\'ing Being must also eternally love himself. In anthropology man is conceived of as being in the likeness of God, as respects his inner nature. The parts of the divine im- age are mens, intelligentia, and voluntas {De Purgatoria, 80 b) ; and each of these parts is, it would appear, held to be incessantly subject to the divine influence. He locates the divine image even more particularly in the human will, which is free, and which is sharply distinguished from the intellect and the desires. In discussing the Ego, Wessel defines personality as being the fruitful source from which spring the will, the judg-
WESSEL
954
WESSEL
ment, self-consciousness, etc., and remarks that man has in his personality the ability to transform tlic naturally existin^r relation between the Divine Spirit and the human into an ethical relation, an immediate conscious- ness of (iod being implanted in him; and that he is under obligation to eflect this change. In soteriology he places the origin of sin in the angel-world, but does not account for its transfer into the world of men. It would even seem that he regards it as an inherent fac- tor in the constitution of man, since it is to him merely debilum. Adam and Kve were far from being perfect while in Eden, and needed, even if temptation had been resisted, development in every side of their nature. It is difficult to see how this undeveloped state could be other than a sinful state under his dctinition. lie rec- ognises a moral depravation as having been added in the fall, but makes it amount to a mere infirmity, which does not extend so far as to destroy the freedom of the will, though it unfits man from attaining to his rightful goal. Grace is necessary and the only means of salva- tion, because it was required for human well-being from the beginning.
Redemption is a process which required that Jesus should be the "express image" of God. Christ, as the source of life, was mediator from the beginning. He was from all eternity appointed to be tlie king and head of an empire, which is in no sense a merely social or- ganization, but in which he is the life of all its mem- bers and is himself the end for which it exists. In the atonement Jesus died for us and made satisfaction to God. The process of redemption is. however, constant- ly described by Wessel as a conflict in which the Lamb is not regarded as taking upon himself the wrath of God, but as resisting the assaults of the devil, who is empowered to wage war and is assisted therein by God. The death of Jesus is then conceived as the completion of the life-long struggle. His victory consists, on the one hand, in the subjugation of the devil, who is untpies- tionably regarded as the personification of the power of evil, and, on the other, in the demonstration afforded by this triumi)h that he is the testator of the New Test. in his death and in his evident drawing of all men to himself in his righteousness and love. His merits as redeemer are superabundant, for he is the consum- mation of the race, and in his capacity as head and redeemer has more to offer than man possessed before the fall.
The condition of salvation is faith in God, based on the word of Christ. Justification is distinguished from the remission of sins, and conceived of as the positive act of renewing in righteousness through a union with Christ and the Trinity by faith. God regards man as beitig positively righteous in Christ, though not for Christ's sake. This is stated in a different light when Wessel teaches that faith does not lay hold upon the work of Christ, but upon his life-giving person. This union having been formed, faith melts into love, and good works may appropriately be said to flow from either quality. Remission of sins is nowhere allowed an independent place in Wessel's theological system. Repentance is not with him sorrow for the sins of the past, but is, in. substance, conversion or freedom from sin. It is a matter of the will rather than of the feel- ings.