explains: "New obedience is
necessary; ... but when it is said: New obedience is necessary to
salvation, the Papists understand that good works merit salvation. This
proposition is false, therefore I relinquish this mode of speech." (_C.
R._ 8, 194.) January 13, 1555, he wrote to the Senate of Nordhausen that
their ministers "should not preach, defend, and dispute the proposition
[Good works are necessary to salvation], because it would immediately be
interpreted to mean that good works merit salvation--_weil doch alsbald
diese Deutung angehaengt wird, als sollten gute Werke Verdienst sein der
Seligkeit._" (410.) September 5, 1556, he said in his letter to Flacius:
"I have always admonished George [Major] not only to explain his
sentence (which he did), but to abandon that form of speech. And he
promised that he would not use it. What more can I ask? The same I did
with others." (842.)

In the Frankfurt Recess of 1558, written by Melanchthon and signed by
the Lutheran princes, we read: "Although therefore this proposition,
'New obedience is necessary (_Nova obedientia est necessaria, nova
obedientia est debitum_),' must be retained, we nevertheless do not wish
to attach these words, '_ad salutem,_ to salvation,' because this
appendix is interpreted as referring to merit and obscures the doctrine
of grace, for this remains true that man is justified before God and is
an heir of eternal salvation by grace, for the sake of the Lord Christ,
by faith in Him only." (9, 497. 405.) In an opinion written November 13,
1559, Melanchthon (together with Paul Eber, Pfeffinger, and H. Salmut)
again declared: "I say clearly that I do not employ the phrase, 'Good
works are necessary to salvation.'" (969.) In his _Responsiones ad
Articulos Bavaricos_ of 1559 he wrote: "_Ego non utor his verbis: Bona
opera sunt necessaria ad salutem, quia hoc additione 'ad salutem'
intelligitur meritum._ I do not use these words: Good works are
necessary to salvation, because by the addition 'to salvation' a merit
is understood." In his lectures, too, Melanchthon frequently rejected
the appendix (to salvation), and warned his pupils not to use the
phrase. (4, 543; _Lehre und Wehre_ 1908, 78.)

Thus Melanchthon, time and again, disowned the proposition which he
himself had first introduced. Nowhere, however, did he reject it or
advise against its use because it was inherently erroneous and false as
such but always merely because it was subject to abuse a