directly conflict with this help and
grace of our Savior Jesus Christ. For since outside of Christ death and
sin are our lords, and the devil our god and prince, there can be no
power or might, no wisdom or understanding, whereby we can qualify
ourselves for, or strive after, righteousness and life; but we must be
blinded people and prisoners of sin and the devil's own, to do and to
think what pleases them and is contrary to God and His commandments."
(CONC. TRIGL. 897, 43.)

153. Luther's Doctrine Endorsed.

To adhere faithfully to Luther's doctrine of conversion and salvation by
grace alone was also the determination of the loyal Lutherans in their
opposition to the Synergists. Planck correctly remarks that the doctrine
which Flacius and the Anti-Synergists defended was the very doctrine
which "Luther advocated in his conflict with Erasmus." (_Prot.
Lehrbegriff_ 4, 667.) This was substantially conceded even by the
opponents. When, for example, at the colloquy in Worms, 1557, the
Romanists demanded that Flacius's doctrine of free will be condemned by
the Lutherans, Melanchthon declared that herein one ought not to submit
to the Papists, who slyly, under the name of Illyricus [Flacius],
demanded the condemnation of Luther, whose opinion in the doctrine of
free will he [Melanchthon] was neither able nor willing to condemn.
(Gieseler 3, 2, 232.) In their _Confession,_ published in March, 1569,
the theologians of Ducal Saxony (Wigand, Coelestin, Irenaeus, Kirchner,
etc.) declared: "We also add that we embrace the doctrine and opinion of
Dr. Luther, the Elias of these latter days of the world, as it is most
luminously and skilfully set forth in the book _De Servo Arbitrio,_
against Erasmus, in the _Commentary on Genesis,_ and in other books; and
we hold that this teaching of Luther agrees with the eternal Word of
God." (Schluesselburg, _Catalogus_ 5, 133.)

Luther's _sola-gratia_-doctrine was embodied also in the _Formula of
Concord,_ and this with a special endorsement of his book _De Servo
Arbitrio._ For here we read: "Even so Dr. Luther wrote of this matter
[the doctrine that our free will has no power whatever to qualify itself
for righteousness, etc.] also in his book _De Servo Arbitrio; i.e._, Of
the Captive Will of Man, in opposition to Erasmus, and elucidated and
supported this position well and thoroughly [_egregie et solide_]; and
afterward he repeated and explained it in his glorious exposition of the
book of