"On Preaching" from the Confessions (#18)

To set the context for the following quotation on preaching, Melanchthon talks in this particular section in Apology IV (Justification) about how the "scholastics have followed the philosophers... (in) teach(ing) only the righteousness of reason - that is, civil works - and maintain that without the Holy Spirit reason can love God above all things" (Ap IV:9; Tappert 108). He argues: "If we can be justified by reason and its works, what need is there of Christ or of regeneration?" (ibid, 12).

We have heard of some who, in their sermons, laid aside the Gospel and expounded the ethics of Aristotle. If the opponents’ ideas are correct, this was perfectly proper, for Aristotle wrote so well on natural ethics that nothing further needs to be added. We see that there are books in existence which compare certain teachings of Christ with the teachings of Socrates, Zeno, and others, as though Christ had come to give some sort of laws by which we could merit the forgiveness of sins rather than receiving it freely for his merits. So if we accept this teaching of the opponents that we merit forgiveness of sins and justification by the works of reason, there will be no difference between philosophical or Pharisaic righteousness and Christian righteousness (Tappert, The Book of Concord. Fortress Press: Philadelphia, 1959, p.109; Apology IV: 14-6).

It seems that the key problem here is not that these sermons preached "philosophical ethics" but that they "laid aside the Gospel" and made it appear as though Christ's purpose in coming was to teach men how to *merit* forgiveness, salvation, eternal life, etc. When philosophical ethics are *substituted for* the Gospel, a good gift of God's creation is substituted for God as the recipient of our love and trust - ultimately becoming a false god.