While the Philippists, also in the Synergistic Controversy, endeavored
to supplant the authority and doctrine of Luther by that of Melanchthon,
their opponents, Amsdorf, Flacius, Wigand, Hesshusius, and others
(though not always fortunate in the choice of their phraseology), stood
four-square on Luther's teaching of the _sola gratia,_ which, they were
fully convinced, was nothing but the pure truth of the Gospel itself.
They maintained that, as a result of the Fall, man has lost his original
holiness and righteousness or the image of God; that both as to his
intellect and will he is totally corrupt spiritually; that of his own
powers he is utterly unable to think or will anything that is truly
good; that not a spark of spiritual life is found in natural man by
virtue of which he might assent to the Gospel or cooperate with the Holy
Spirit in his conversion; that his carnal mind is enmity toward God;
that of his own powers he is active only in resisting the work of the
Holy Spirit, nor is he able to do otherwise; that such resistance
continues until he is converted and a new will and heart have been
created in him; that conversion consists in this, that men who by nature
are unwilling and resist God's grace become such as willingly consent
and obey the Gospel and the Holy Spirit; that this is done solely by
God's grace, through Word and Sacrament; that man is purely passive in
his conversion, inasmuch as he contributes nothing towards it, and
merely suffers and experiences the work of the Holy Spirit; that only
after his conversion man is able to cooperate with the Holy Spirit; that
such cooperation, however, flows not from innate powers of the natural
will, but from the new powers imparted in conversion; that also in the
converted the natural sinful will continues to oppose whatever is truly
good, thus causing a conflict between the flesh and the spirit which
lasts till death; in brief, that man's conversion and salvation are due
to grace alone and in no respect whatever to man and his natural powers.
The _Book of Confutation,_ of 1559, drafted, as stated above, by the
theologians of Jena, designates the synergistic dogma as a "rejection of
grace." Here we also meet with statements such as the following: Human
nature "is altogether turned aside from God, and is hostile toward Him
and subject to the tyranny of sin and Satan (_naturam humanam prorsus a
Deo aversam eique inimicam et tyrannidi peccati ac Satanae subiectam
esse_)." It is impossible for the unregenerate man "to understand or to
apprehend the will of God revealed in the Word, or by his own power to
convert himself to God and to will or perform anything good (_homini non
renato impossibile esse intelligere aut apprehendere voluntatem Dei in
Verbo patefactam aut sua ipsius voluntate ad Deum se convertere, boni
aliquid velle aut perficere_)." "Our will to obey God or to choose the
good is utterly extinguished and corrupted. _Voluntas nostra ad Dei
obedientiam aut ad bonum eligendum prorsus extincta et depravata est_."
(Tschackert, 523; Gieseler 3, 2, 229.)
The second of the Propositions prepared by Simon Musaeus and Flacius for
the Disputation at Weimar, 1560, reads: "Corrupt man cannot operate or
cooperate toward anything good by true motions, and such as proceed from
the heart; for his heart is altogether dead spiritually, and has utterly
lost the image of God, or all powers and inclinations toward that which
is good. _Homo corruptus nihil boni potest veris ac ex corde
proficiscentibus motibus operari aut cooperari, nom plane est
spiritualiter mortuus et Dei imaginem seu omnes bonas vires et
inclinationes prorsus amisit._" The third: Not only "has he lost
entirely all good powers, but, in addition, he has also acquired
contrary and most evil powers, ... so that, of necessity or inevitably,
he constantly and vehemently opposes God and true piety (_ita [tr. note:
sic on punctuation] ut necessario seu inevitabiliter Deo ac verae
pietati semper et vehementer adversetur._" The fourth thesis states that
God alone, through His Word and the Holy Spirit, converts, draws, and
illumines man, kindles faith, justifies, renews, and creates him unto
good works, while natural or Adamic free will is of itself not only
inactive, but resists (_non solum non cooperante ex se naturali aut
Adamico libero arbitrio, sed etiam contra furente ac fremente_). (Planck
4, 692; Gieseler 3, 2, 245.)
The same position was occupied by the Mansfeld ministers in a statement
of August 20, 1562, and by Hesshusius in his _Confutation of the
Arguments by which the Synergists Endeavor to Defend Their Error
Concerning the Powers of the Dead Free Will_. They held that in his
conversion man is purely passive and has no mode of action whatever;
that he is but the passive subject who is to be converted (_subiectam
patiens, subiectum convertendum_); that he contributes no more to his
conversion than an infant to its own formation in the womb of its
mother; that he is passive, like a block, inasmuch as he does not in any
way cooperate, but at the same time differs from, and is worse than, a
block, because he is active in resisting the Holy Spirit until he has
been converted. The _Confession_ presented by the theologians of Ducal
Saxony (Wigand, Coelestinus, Irenaeus, Rosinus, Kirchner, etc.) at the
Altenburg Colloquy March, 1569, occupies the same doctrinal position. As
stated before, these theologians made it a special point also to declare
their agreement with Luther's book _De Servo Arbitrio_. (Schluesselburg
5, 316. 133.)