and applied, and yet
clearly and properly makes man responsible for his own destruction....
Luther is constantly claimed by the Calvinists, and I have known
intelligent Calvinists who are entirely satisfied with the Formula of
Concord on the 'Five Points.' Yet, the claim and the satisfaction are
both groundless. The truth in the Formula so strictly follows the line
of Scripture thinking that it is hard to get a spear's point under the
scales of its armor. My own conviction about Luther is, that he was
never a Calvinist on the 'Five Points,' but Augustinian, with some
aspects of coincidence and _many_ of divergence, even where he was
nearest Calvinism." In an article found among his papers after his
death, Krauth says: "Why do men in completely parallel relations to this
election move in opposite directions? The one believes, the other
disbelieves. Is the election of God in any sense the cause of the
difference? The answer of the Calvinist is: Yes. The answer of the
Lutheran is: No. The election of God is indeed the cause of the faith of
the one, but it is neither positively nor negatively, neither by act nor
by failure to act, the cause of the unbelief of the other. Hence it is
not the cause of the difference. I choose (or elect) to offer bread to
two beggars. The election of bread for his food and the election to
offer it to him are the proper cause of the reception of the bread on
the part of the one, but they are not the cause of the rejection on the
part of the other. The first concurs in my election, but his concurrence
is the effect, not the cause, of my election. The second refuses, but
his refusal is not the effect of my election, but an effect in spite of
it. As between me and the men the decision must be, that the acceptance
of one is no more than the refusal of the other, the cause of my
election. But between the one and the other the difference is made by
the willingness to receive, wrought by me through the offer, and the
unwillingness to receive, wrought by the man himself in spite of the
offer. Faith is not the cause of our general election. That must be
admitted by all. But neither can it be the cause of our particular
election, for the particular is only possible, and indeed only
thinkable, as the result of the general. But it is the cause of the
difference between the man who receives the benefits of this election,
and the man who refuses them. This faith is foreseen indeed, but it does
not become by th