, ubi facere quod in se?_" (5, 544. 74.) In a sermon of
February 2, 1521, he said: "Whatever grace is in us comes from God
alone. Here free will is entirely dead. All that we attempt to establish
with our powers is lost unless He prevenes and makes us alive through
His grace. Grace is His own work, which we receive in our hearts by
faith. This grace the soul did not possess before, for it is the new
man.... The great proud saints will not do this [ascribe everything to
God and His mercy]. They, too, would have a share in it, saying to our
Lord: 'This I have done by my free will, this I have deserved.'" (9,
573; 5, 544.)

Thus Luther, from the very beginning of the Reformation, stood for the
doctrine of justification, conversion, and salvation by grace alone.
Most emphatically he denied that man though free to a certain extent in
human and temporal affairs, is able to cooperate with the powers of his
natural, unregenerate will in matters spiritual and pertaining to God.
This was also the position which Luther victoriously defended against
Erasmus in his _De Servo Arbitrio_ of 1525. Goaded on by the Romanists
to come out publicly against the German heretic, the great Humanist, in
his _Diatribe_ of 1524, had shrewdly planned to attack his opponent at
the most vulnerable point. As such he regarded Luther's monergistic
doctrine, according to which it is God alone who justifies, converts,
preserves, and saves men, without any works of their own. In reality,
however, as presently appeared from his glorious classic on the
_sola-gratia_ doctrine, Erasmus had assaulted the strongest gate of
Luther's fortress. For the source of the wonderful power which Luther
displayed throughout the Reformation was none other than the divine
conviction born of the Word of God that in every respect grace alone is
the cause of our justification and salvation. And if ever this blessed
doctrine was firmly established, successfully defended, and greatly
glorified, it was in Luther's book against Erasmus.

Justification, conversion, perseverance in faith, and final salvation,
obtained not by any effort of ours, but in every respect received as a
gracious gift of God alone--that was the teaching also to which Luther
faithfully, most determinedly, and without any wavering adhered
throughout his life. In his _Large Confession_ of 1528, for example, we
read: "Herewith I reject and condemn as nothing but error all dogmas
which extol our free will, as they