Luther claimed that he and all men were bound to interpret the Bible for themselves, and not to submit their judgment to any pope, council or ecclesiastical power. And he claimed that the Bible teaches that man is to be saved [justified], not by outward forms, but _by faith in Jesus Christ_. But retaining the doctrine of man’s ruined and helpless _nature_, his ideas of _faith_ and of the _mode_ of attaining it, were vague and conflicting. Thus originated the long conflict between Catholic and Protestant Christianity, involving some of the most bloody and cruel wars and persecutions that ever afflicted humanity. Next came Arminius and his associates, who, still clinging to the fatal root of a totally depraved nature, labored to devise _some_ way in which, in spite of this ruin, man could do something to secure regeneration from God. For, as shown in the early chapters, Calvinism maintained that man was utterly helpless, and that _all_ the doings of the unregenerate were sin and only sin, and therefore utterly unavailing in gaining regenerating aid from God. Hence originated the long conflict between Calvinism and Arminianism, which has been continued to this day. Both these schools of divinity rested on the dogma of an entirely depraved nature, but their tendencies were diverse. Calvinism, maintaining the utter helplessness of man, tended to despairing inefficiency. If man really could do nothing, why should he attempt any thing to secure salvation? On the other hand, Arminianism, promising help through certain forms, rites and influences conveyed by ecclesiastics, tended to a reliance on rites and forms. If man is to be saved by these instrumentalities and can do nothing himself except through them, then, these being secured, the natural tendency must be to rest in them. These two diverse tendencies finally resulted in an equal torpor and indifference to religion in both parties, which was interrupted on the Arminian side by Wesley and Whitfield, and on the Calvinistic side by Jonathan Edwards. Wesley and his co‐laborers taught anew the Protestant doctrine of man’s independence of ecclesiastical interpretations and church forms, and the necessity of an immediate and higher spiritual life. From his efforts and those of Whitfield originated the great Methodist denomination in Great Britain and America. In this sect is carried out the theory of regeneration, not as a slow process of educational training, but as an instantaneous change, manifested in excited sensibilities. As the depravity consequent on Adam’s sin consists in the “deprivation” of God’s Spirit, and regeneration is the return of this gift, to be secured by prayer and other “means of grace,” we find their prayers, hymns and preaching all conformed to this theory. They gain grace when the Spirit comes, and when it departs they “fall from grace.”