Is not every good institution subject to
perversion at any time? We believe Dorner to be correct, and that Spener
was the veritable successor of Luther and Melanchthon. A recent author,
who has shown a singular facility in grouping historical periods and
discovering their great significance, says: "Pietism went back from the
cold faith of the seventeenth century to the living faith of the
Reformation. But just because this return was vital and produced by the
agency of the Holy Spirit, it could not be termed a literal return. We
must not forget that the orthodoxy of the seventeenth century was only
the extreme elaboration of an error, the beginning of which we find as
far back as Luther's time, and which became more and more a power in the
Church through the influence of Melanchthon. It was this: Mistaking the
faith by which we believe for the faith which is believed. The principle
of the Reformation was justification by faith, not the doctrine of faith
_and_ justification. In reply to the Catholics it was deemed sufficient
to show that this was the true doctrine which points out the way of
salvation to man.
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