of Luther, who had written, _e.g._, in his
_Church Postil_ of 1521: "No, dear man, you [cannot earn heaven by your
good works, but you] must have heaven and already be saved before you do
good works. Works do not merit heaven, but, on the contrary, heaven,
imparted by pure grace, does good works spontaneouslv, seeking no merit,
but only the welfare of the neighbor and the glory of God. _Nein, lieber
Mensch, du musst den Himmel haben und schon selig sein, ehe du gute
Werke tust. Die Werke verdienen nicht den Himmel, sondern wiederum
[umgekehrt], der Himmel, aus lauter Gnaden gegeben, tut die guten Werke
dahin, ohne Gesuch des Verdienstes, nur dem Naechsten zu Nutz und Gott
zu Ehren._" (E. 7, 174.) Again, in _De Servio Arbitrio_ of 1525: "The
children of God do good entirely voluntarily, seeking no reward, but
only the glory and will of God, ready to do the good even if, assuming
the impossible, there were neither heaven nor hell. _Filii autem Dei
gratuita voluntate faciunt bonum, nullum praemium quaerentes, sed solam
gloriam et voluntatem Dei, parati bonum facere, si per impossibile neque
regnum neque infernus esset._" (E. v. a. 7, 234.)

XIV. The Synergistic Controversy.

151. Relation of Majorism and Synergism.

The theological connection between Majorism and synergism is much closer
than is generally realized. Both maintain that, in part, or in a certain
respect, salvation depends not on grace alone, but also on man and his
efforts. The Majorists declared good works to be necessary to salvation,
or at least to the preservation of faith and of salvation. Thus
salvation would, in a way, depend on the right conduct of a Christian
after his conversion. The Synergists asserted: Man, too, must do his bit
and cooperate with the Holy Spirit if he desires to be saved. Conversion
and salvation, therefore, would depend, at least in part, on man's
conduct toward converting grace, and he would be justified and saved,
not by grace alone, but by a faith which to a certain extent is a work
of his own. The burden of both, Majorism and synergism, was the denial
of the _sola gratia._ Both coordinated man and God as the causes of our
salvation. Indeed, consistently carried out, both destroyed the central
Christian truth of justification by grace alone and, with it, the
assurance of a gracious God and of eternal salvation--the supreme
religious concern of Luther and the entire Lutheran theology.

Majorists and Synergists employed als