y accuses and damns, and
apart from this it has no other use or office, _i.e._, the Law remains
the norm of good works to all eternity, also in hell after the Last Day,
but for the unjust and reprobate, and for the flesh in every man. To the
just, regenerated, and new man, however, it is not the norm of good
works, _i.e._, the Law does not govern, regulate, and teach the just
man; _i.e._, it is not active with respect to him as it is with respect
to an unjust man, but is rather regulated and governed and taught by the
just man. It no longer drives the just (as it did before conversion and
as it still drives the flesh), but is now driven and suffers, since as
just men we are no longer under the Law, but above the Law and lords of
the Law. How, therefore, can the Law be a norm to the just man when he
is the lord of the Law, commands the Law, and frequently does what is
contrary to the Law (_cum iustus legis sit dominus, legi imperet et
saepe legi contraria faciat_)?... When the just man meditates in the Law
of the Lord day and night, when he establishes the Law by faith, when he
loves the Law and admires the inexhaustible wisdom of the divine Law,
when he does good works written and prescribed in the Law (as indeed he
alone can), when he uses the Law aright,--all these are neither the
third, nor the fourth, nor the twelfth, nor the fiftieth use or office
of the Law,... but fruits of faith, of the Spirit, or regeneration....
But the Old Man, who is not yet new, or a part of him which is not as
yet regenerated, has need of this Law, and he is to be commanded: 'Put
on the new man; put off the old.'" (Schluesselburg 4, 61; Tschackert,
484.)

195. Melanchthon and the Philippists.

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 Scriptu