Gute Werke sind zur Seligkeit schaedlich,'
eine rechte, wahre christliche Propositio sei,_ durch die heiligen
Paulum und Lutherum gelehrt und gepredigt. Niclas von Amsdorf, 1559.
That this proposition, 'Good works are injurious to salvation,' is a
correct, true, Christian proposition taught and preached by Sts. Paul
and Luther." (Frank 2, 228.)

Luther, to whose writings Amsdorf appealed, had spoken very guardedly
and correctly in this matter. He had declared: Good works are
detrimental to the righteousness of faith, "if one presumes to be
justified by them, _si quis per ea praesumat iustificari._" Wherever
Luther speaks of the injuriousness of good works, it is always _sub
specie iustificationis,_ that is to say, viewing good works as entering
the article of justification, or the forgiveness of sins. (Weimar 7, 59;
10, 3, 373. 374. 387; E. 16, 465. 484; Tschackert, 516.) What vitiated
the proposition as found in Amsdorf's tract was the fact that he had
omitted the modification added by Luther. Amsdorf made a flat statement
of what Luther had asserted, not flatly, _nude et simpliciter,_ but with
a limitation, _secundum quid._

Self-evidently the venerable Amsdorf, too, who from the very beginning
of the Reformation had set an example in preaching as well as in living
a truly Christian life, did not in the least intend to minimize, or
discourage the doing of, good works by his offensive phrase, but merely
to eliminate good works from the article of justification. As a matter
of fact, his extravagant statement, when taken as it reads, flatly
contradicted his own clear teaching. In 1552 he had declared against
Major, as recorded above: "Who has ever taught or said that one should
or need not do good works?" "For we all say and confess that after his
renewal and new birth a Christian should love and fear God and do all
manner of good works," etc. What Amsdorf wished to emphasize was not
that good works are dangerous in themselves and as such, but in the
article of salvation. For this reason he added: "_ad salutem,_ to
salvation." By this appendix he meant to emphasize that good works are
dangerous when introduced as a factor in justification and trusted in
for one's salvation.

Melanchthon refers to the proposition of Amsdorf as "filthy speech,
_unflaetige Rede._" In 1557, at Worms, he wrote: "Now Amsdorf writes:
Good works are detrimental to salvation.... The Antinomians and their
like must avoid the filthy speech, 'Goo