A further controversy concerning the proper distinction between the Law
and the Gospel was caused by the Philippists in Wittenberg whose
teaching was somewhat akin to that of Agricola. They held that the
Gospel, in the narrow sense of the term, and as distinguished from the
Law, is "the most powerful preaching of repentance." (Frank 2, 327.)
Taking his cue from Luther, Melanchthon, in his _Loci_ of 1521 as well
as in later writings, clearly distinguished between Law and Gospel. (_C.
R._ 21, 139; 23, 49; 12, 576.) True, he had taught, also in the
_Apology_, that, in the wider sense, the Gospel is both a preaching of
repentance and forgiveness of sin. But this, as the _Formula of Concord_
explains, was perfectly correct and in keeping with the Scriptures.
However, in repeating the statement that the Gospel embraces both the
preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins, Melanchthon was not
always sufficiently careful to preclude misapprehension and
misunderstanding. Indeed, some of the statements he made after Luther's
death are misleading, and did not escape the challenge of loyal
Lutherans.
During a disputation in 1548, at which Melanchthon presided, Flacius
criticized the unqualified assertion that the Gospel was a preaching of
repentance, but was satisfied when Melanchthon explained that the term
Gospel was here used in the wider sense, as comprising the entire
doctrine of Christ. However, when Melanchthon, during another
disputation, 1556, declared: The ministry of the Gospel "rebukes the
other sins which the Law shows, as well as the saddest of sins which is
revealed by the Gospel (_hoc tristissimum peccatum, quod in Evangelio
ostenditur_), _viz._, that the world ignores and despises the Son of
God." Flacius considered it his plain duty to register a public protest.
It was a teaching which was, at least in part, the same error that
Luther, and formerly also Melanchthon himself, had denounced when
espoused by Agricola, _viz._, that genuine contrition is wrought, not by
the Law, but by the Gospel; by the preaching, not of the violation of
the Law, but of the violation of the Son. (_C. R._ 12, 634. 640.)
These misleading statements of Melanchthon were religiously cultivated
and zealously defended by the Wittenberg Philippists. With a good deal
of animosity they emphasized that the Gospel in its most proper sense is
also a preaching of repentance (_praedicatio poenitentiae,
Busspredigt_), inasmuch as it revealed the baseness of sin and the
greatness of its offense against God, and, in particular, inasmuch as
the Gospel alone uncovered, rebuked, and condemned the hidden sin
(_arcanum peccatum_) and the chief sin of all, the sin of unbelief
(_incredulitas et neglectio Filii_), which alone condemns a man. These
views, which evidently involved a commingling of the Law and the Gospel,
were set forth by Paul Crell in his Disputation against John Wigand,
1571, and were defended in the _Propositions Concerning the Chief
Controversies of These Times_ (also of 1571), by Pezel and other
Wittenberg theologians. (Frank 2, 277. 323.)
As a consequence, the Philippists, too, were charged with antinomianism,
and were strenuously opposed by such theologians as Flacius, Amsdorf,
and Wigand. Wigand attacked the Wittenberg _Propositions_ in his book of
1571, _Concerning Antinomianism, Old and New_. Pezel answered in his
_Apology of the True Doctrine on the Definition of the Gospel_, 1571;
and Paul Crell, in _Spongia, or 150 Propositions Concerning the
Definition of the Gospel, Opposed to the Stupid Accusation of John
Wigand_, 1571. The teaching of the Philippists was formulated by Paul
Crell as follows: "Since this greatest and chief sin [unbelief] is
revealed, rebuked, and condemned by the Gospel alone, therefore also the
Gospel alone is expressly and particularly, truly and properly, a
preaching and a voice of repentance or conversion in its true and proper
sense. _A solo evangelio, cum peccatum hoc summum et praecipuum
monstretur, arguatur et damnetur expresse ac nominatim solum etiam
evangelium vere ac proprie praedicatio ac vox est poenitentiae sive
conversionis vere et proprie ita dictae_." (277. 327.)
This doctrine of the Philippists, according to which the Gospel in the
narrow and proper sense, and as distinguished from the Law, is a
preaching of repentance, was rejected by Article V of the _Formula of
Concord_ as follows: "But if the Law and the Gospel, likewise also Moses
himself as a teacher of the Law and Christ as a preacher of the Gospel,
are contrasted with one another, we believe, teach, and confess that the
Gospel is not a preaching of repentance or reproof, but properly nothing
else than a preaching of consolation, and a joyful message which does
not reprove or terrify, but comforts consciences against the terrors of
the Law, points alone to the merit of Christ, and raises them up again
by the lovely preaching of the grace and favor of God, obtained through
Christ's merit." (803, 7.)