The second article of the _Formula of Concord_, which decided the
questions involved in the Synergistic Controversy, takes a clear,
determined, and consistent stand against all forms and formulas of
synergism. At the same time it avoids all extravagant, improper,
offensive, and inadequate terms and phrases, as well as the numerous
pitfalls lurking everywhere in the questions concerning free will,
against which also some of the opponents of the Synergists had not
always sufficiently been on their guard. Article II teaches "that
original sin is an unspeakable evil and such an entire corruption of
human nature that in it and all its internal and external powers nothing
pure or good remains, but everything is entirely corrupt, so that on
account of original sin man is in God's sight truly spiritually dead,
with all his powers dead to that which is good (_dass der Mensch durch
die Erbsuende wahrhaftig vor Gott geistlich tot und zum Guten mit allen
seinen Kraeften erstorben sei_)" (CONC. TRIGL. 879, 60); "that in
spiritual and divine things the intellect, heart, and will of the
unregenerate man are utterly unable, by their own natural powers, to
understand, believe, accept, think, will, begin, effect, work, or concur
in working, anything, but they are entirely dead to what is good, and
corrupt, so that in man's nature since the Fall, before regeneration,
there is not the least spark of spiritual power remaining, nor present,
by which, of himself, he can prepare himself for God's grace, or accept
the offered grace, nor be capable of it for and of himself, or apply or
accommodate himself thereto, or by his own powers be able of himself, as
of himself, to aid, do, work, or concur in working anything towards his
conversion either wholly, or half, or in any, even the least or most
inconsiderable part; but that he is the servant [and slave] of sin, John
8, 34, and a captive of the devil, by whom he is moved, Eph. 2, 2;
2 Tim. 2, 26. Hence natural free will according to its perverted
disposition and nature is strong and active only with respect to what is
displeasing and contrary to God" (883, 7; 887, 17); that "before man is
enlightened, converted, regenerated, renewed and drawn by the Holy
Spirit he can of himself and of his own natural powers begin work, or
concur in working in spiritual things and in his own conversion or
regeneration just as little as a stone or a block or clay." (891, 24);
that, moreover, "in this respect" [inasmuch as man resists the Holy
Spirit] "it may well be said that man is not a stone or block, for a
stone or block does not resist the person who moves it, nor does it
understand and is sensible of what is being done with it, as man with
his will so long resists God the Lord until he is converted (_donec ad
Deum conversus fuerit_)" (905, 59); that "the Holy Scriptures ascribe
conversion, faith in Christ, regeneration, renewal, and all that belongs
to their efficacious beginning and completion, not to the human powers
of the natural free will, neither entirely, nor half nor in any, even
the least or most inconsiderable part, but _in solidum_, that is,
entirely and solely, to the divine working and the Holy Spirit" (891,
25); that "the preaching and hearing of God's Word are instruments of
the Holy Ghost, by, with, and through which He desires to work
efficaciously, and to convert men to God, and to work in them both to
will and to do" (901, 52); that "as soon as the Holy Ghost ... has begun
in us this His work of regeneration and renewal, it is certain that
through the power of the Holy Ghost we can and should cooperate
(_mitwirken_), although still in great weakness" (907, 65); that this
cooperation, however, "does not occur from our carnal natural powers,
but from the new powers and gifts which the Holy Ghost has begun in us
in conversion," and "is to be understood in no other way than that the
converted man does good to such an extent and so long as God by His Holy
Spirit rules, guides, and leads him, and that as soon as God would
withdraw His gracious hand from him, he could not for a moment persevere
in obedience to God," and that hence it is not a power independent from,
and coordinated with, the Holy Spirit, as though "the converted man
cooperated with the Holy Ghost in the manner as when two horses together
draw a wagon" (907, 66); and finally, that as to the
three-concurring-causes doctrine it is "manifest, from the explanations
presented that conversion to God is a work of God the Holy Ghost alone,
who is the true Master that alone works this in us, for which He uses
the preaching and hearing of His holy Word as His ordinary means and
instrument. But the intellect and will of the unregenerate man are
nothing else than _subiectum convertendum_, that is, that which is to be
converted, it being the intellect and will of a spiritually dead man, in
whom the Holy Ghost works conversion and renewal, towards which work
man's will that is to be converted does nothing, but suffers God alone
to work in him until he is regenerated and then he [cooperates] works
also with the Holy Ghost that which is pleasing to God in other good
works that follow in the way and to the extent fully set forth above"
(915, 90).
It has been said that originally also the _Formula of Concord_ in its
Torgau draft (_Das Torgausche Buch, i.e._, the draft preceding the
Bergic Book=_Formula of Concord_) contained the three-concurring-causes
doctrine of Melanchthon and the Synergists. As a matter of fact,
however, the Torgau Book does not speak of three causes of conversion,
but of three causes in those who are already converted,--a doctrine
entirely in agreement with the _Formula of Concord_, which, as shown,
plainly teaches that after conversion the will of man also cooperates
with the Holy Spirit. In the Torgau Book the passage in question reads:
"Thus also three causes concur to effect this internal new obedience in
the converted. The first and chief cause is God Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost.... The second is God's Word.... The third is man's intellect,
enlightened by the Holy Spirit, which ponders and understands God's
command [threat and promise], and our new and regenerate will, which is
governed by the Holy Spirit, and now desires with a glad and willing
heart (_herzlich gern und willig_), though in great weakness, to submit
to, and obey, the Word and will of God." In the same sense, at the
colloquy in AItenburg, 1568 to 1569, the Jena theologians also mentioned
as a "third cause" "the mind of man, which is regenerated and renewed,
and yields to, and obeys, the Holy Spirit and the Word of God (_des
Menschen Gemuet, so wiedergeboren und erneuert ist und dem Heiligen
Geiste und Gottes Wort Folge tut und gehorsam ist_)." (Frank 1, 214f.)