J. L. Z. Junkheim ^ taught that the work of God in conversion IS supernatural, not because He acts immediately, but because the means through which He works, his Word as a divine revelation, and the effect are supernatural. The modus agendi is purely nat- ural, and the reformation only so far exceeds the natural power of man, as that the truth by which it is effected was not discovered by man, but revealed by God ; and so far as this revealed truth has more power than the thoughts or speculations of men. . Michaelis ^ and Doderlein * took the same ground, and denied any supernatural influence in the work of conversion. Others taught that the grace of God is universal, and that by grace is to be understood natural knowledge, and the helps to virtue, of which men have the opportunity and power to avail themselves. Ebei'- hard,^ Henke, Eckerniann, and Wegscheider ^ acknowledge only a general agency of God in conversion, in that He has written the moral law on the hearts of men, given them the power of self-ref- ormation, and is the author of Christianity, and in his providence gives them the occasion and inducements to virtuous action. Am- nion'^ says grace consists in "procurations institutionis salutaris, excitatione per exempla virtutis illustria, paupertate, calamitatibus, admonitionibus amicorum et inimicorum," etc.^ There -was a class of theologians during this period to which Storr, Flatt, and Knapp belonged, who opposed these open denials of the pi'inciples, not only of Protestant, but also of Catholic Christianity, but who were nevertheless far below the standard of the Reformation.
To this state of extreme attenuation was the theology of the Reformers reduced, when the introduction of the speculative, tran- scendental, or pantheistic philosophy effected an entire revolution, which even such writers as Dorner are accustomed to call " the
1 Epitome, Theolorjice, v. ii . 4; 4th o-lit. Leipzig, 1799, pp. 229, 2.30.
2 Von dem Ufhevnaiiirlichen in den Gnoilenmrkunyen, Erlangen, 1775. « Dogm. p. 180.
♦ Institutio Thtologi Cliristiani, edit. Nuremberg and Altorf, 1797, vol. ii. p. G98. 8 Apol des Sokrnt, 2 Till. p. 387.
« Inslilutiones Theologioe, 5th edit. Halle, 1826, § 152. T Summa, iii. ii. 4, § 158; 4th edit. Leipzig, 1830, p. 307.
• See Bretschneider, vol. u. p. 615, 616. Domer's GeschichtederproUstantischen Theoh' gU,