m, nihil tectum est, sed iuxta spiritum Lutheri,
qui Christi est_." (Schaff 1, 339.) Also the _Formula of Concord_,
therefore, contains Luther's theology.

It has been asserted that the _Formula of Concord_ is a compromise
between Luther and Melanchthon, a "synthesis or combination of the two
antagonistic forces of the Reformation, a balance of mutually
destructive principles," etc. The _Formula_, says also Seeberg
represents a "Melanchthonian Lutheranism." But the plain truth is that
the _Formula_ is a complete victory of Luther over the later Melanchthon
as well as the other errorists who had raised their heads within the
Lutheran Church. It gave the floor, not to Philip, but to Martin. True,
it was the avowed object of the _Formula_ to restore peace to the
Lutheran Church, but not by compromising in any shape or form the
doctrine of Luther, which, its authors were convinced, is nothing but
divine truth itself. In thesis and antithesis, moreover, the _Formula_
takes a clearly defined stand against all the errorists of those days:
Anabaptists, Schwenckfeldians, Antitrinitarians, Romanists, Zwinglians,
Calvinists, Crypto-Calvinists, Adiaphorists, Antinomians, Synergists,
Majorists, the later Flacianists, etc. It did not acknowledge, or leave
room for, any doctrines or doctrinal tendencies deviating in the least
from original genuine Scriptural Lutheranism. At every point it occupied
the old Lutheran ground. Everywhere it observed a correct balance
between two errors (_e.g._, Romanism and Zwinglianism, Calvinism and
synergism, Majorism and antinomianism); it steered clear of Scylla as
well as Charybdis avoiding errors to the right as well as pitfalls to
the left. The golden highway of truth on which it travels was not
Melanchthon nor a middle ground between Luther and Melanchthon, but
simply Luther and the truths which he had brought to light again.

Melanchthonianism may be defined as an effort to inoculate Lutheranism
with a unionistic and Calvinistic virus. The distinct object of the
_Formula_, however, was not merely to reduce, but to purge the Lutheran
Church entirely from, this as well as other leaven. The _Formula's_
theology is not Lutheranism modified by, but thoroughly cleansed from,
antinomianism, Osiandrianism, and particularly from Philippism.
Accordingly, while in the _Formula_ Luther is celebrated and quoted as
the true and reliable exponent of Lutheranism, Melanchthon is nowhere
appealed to as an authori