them For if some more imperfect acts of Faith of Repentance Hope Love c. done only by God's assistant Grace did thro God's promise and Christ's merits procure our first Justification and the consequents thereof much more the same acts and others the like now more perfect and proceeding from Grace inhabitant do thro the same promise and merits confer on or procure for us a greater or as some stile it a second Justification viz. An improvement of our former justice the remission of such Venial Sins as are still committed by the justified and a richer eternal reward 9. They affirm That a man may fall away again from this state of Justification by incurring those greater Sins either of Omission or Commission which are for this cause called commonly Mortal from which fall he is capable of restorement to a second Justification or justified condition by the same means as he attained the first only if instead of Baptisme not iterable he make use of the Sacrament of Penance for his entrance into it where-in concerning the just value and vertue of Penal Works see below Head XIX 10. These are the Catholicks Positions concerning Justification much tending to the promotion of pious endeavours and an holy life with whom also the more moderate Protestants do in most if not all the former Points concur But meanwhile there are other Tenents of the more rigid Protestants on this subject and several also of them broached by the first Author of the Reformation which brings a very great prejudice to it that tend much to the relaxation of good manners the breeding of false securities and weakning mens endeavours in the prosecution of a good life such as these ζ. ζ. See the most rigid Protestants maintaining the most of these Opinions cited and censured by Bishop Forbes in his Considerationes aequae placidae de Justificatione And by Dr. Hammond in his Treatise of Fundamentals from the 11th to the 19th Chapter And by Mr. Thorndike Epilog 2. l. from the 4th to the 10th Chapter 1st Their placing Justification only in the remission of Sin and imputation to us of the righteousness of Christ not in infusion of Grace or renovation of life making men fancy here that all their work is done for and without them none to be done in or by them 2ly In such remission of Sin their making Justification as it were one momentaneous act and God at one and the same time remitting to us all our Sins past present and to come which must needs produce afterward a very careless behaviour both to committing and repenting of Sin 3ly In such imputation of Christ's Righteousness their maintaining it in such a manner not as if we were meritoriously justified by the application of the effects of it to us as if it had been our own but formally justified by a translation of it and investiture with it in such a manner as if it were inherent in us and esteemed to be done by our selves 4ly From whence ariseth also a conceit that all men by this righteousness apprehended by their Faith are equally justified or all esteemed equally righteous in their Justification 5ly And so also that all become equal in the future celestial reward whether working much or working little 6ly Their making the only instrument or necessary condition required in us for Justification or remission of Sin Faith alone an easy act of the brain as Dr. Hammond Of Fundamentals p. 116. observes having nothing in it repugnant to our passions and not any other good disposition wrought in us by God's especial Grace Repentance purpose of a better Life and this Faith too required of us for this purpose not as any work or duty but only as an instrument or hand to apprehend and apply Christ's merits to us and to make his righteousness ours c. 7ly Their making this Faith that justifies us a strong fiducia or full assurance that we are justified or if you will that we shall be justified only on those terms if we firmly believe we shall be so Which obliging men of what life soever to believe they are or shall be justified without looking after any requisite thereto save only this full belief renders those who continue still unreformed in their Manners yet by such strong fancy secure of their Salvation whilst none more than they extol the all-sufficiency of Christ's Righteousness nor none so much as they do or have reason to diffide in and dis-esteem their own From which Tenent also it follows that all those that are truly justified are assured or certainly know that they are justified The ordinary effect of which Doctrine is despair in some who find in themselves no such assurance certain presumption in others who are fully assured without just cause 8ly Their holding that a justifying is only a true Faith which breeds a great presumption in those for their being also justified persons who do and have no reason but to take themselves for true believers and who would even give their bodies to be burnt for any Article of the Christian Faith 1. Cor. 13.3 and yet do or may want Charity and so Justification 9ly Their holding good works and the other dispositions that always accompany a justified Faith to be necessary to our Justification or Salvation only as effects and fruits or also signs and assurances to our selves or others of this Faith necessary for their presence indeed but not for their efficiency as causa sine qua non ad salutem non impediendum but not as instruments or conditions required thereto as our Faith is thus destroying obedience it self by taking away the chief motives that men have to it and making them neglect any further pains-taking for the production of those things which they are taught do necessarily grow from Faith or which serve only to justify them not before God but Men. 10ly Their expounding St. Paul not only to exclude Works performed by strength of Nature but done by Grace from any way disposing us or concurring thereto And St. James only to speak of good Works as declaring our Justification before men not obtaining it with God 11ly Their affirming the Promises of the Gospel to be meerly gratuital excepting for Faith and not conditional upon Obedience as those of the Law were denying our Lord to be any Legislator or denying Christian liberty to be so far obliged to the Obedience of the Law as that any account is had of our observing of it in any degree as to obtaining or improving our Justification And that Christians ought now not as tied to it by God's Law but spontaneously and freely to do that Will of his which was formerly made known to them by the Law Which Obedience of our's how little soever and upon such terms we may guess it will not be much yet is accepted by God through the more perfect Obedience of his Son made ours by Faith See Calvin Institutiones 3. l. 19. c. 2.4 § And then we may
forementioned is not allowed nor other explicite Faith than the forementioned required Therefore that Proposition Haec est vera Catholica fides extra quam nemo Salvus esse potest as applied to the larger Creeds that of Athanasius or yet further to all the Decrees of all lawful Oecumenical Councils as in the Bull of Pius the Fourth ought either to be understood not distributively as if any Decree of any such Council unknown and so not believed or assented to excludeth from Salvation For how few among Christians do know or yield actual assent to all the Decrees of some one Council And how can the Doctors of that Church require such Belief to all the Decrees suppose of the Council of Trent a many of whom require it not to all the Articles of the Apostles Creed But collectively thus That all that Fides extra quam nemo Salvus is contained therein and that extra eam totaliter sumptam or si tota desit nemo Salvus esse potest As elsewhere in the same Council of Trent the Nicene Creed is called Fundamentum firmum unicum contra quod portae inferi nunquam praevalebunt Conc. Trid. Sess 3. or to be understood distributively but hypothetically thus That when any one knows any such Article to have been defined by the Church wherein a non-culpable ignorance of the Church's Definitions always excuseth he after this in non-believing or in dissenting from such Article doth by this his Pertinacy and Disobedience to the Church as by other greater sins persisted in and unrepented of incur the loss of Salvation HEAD XIV Concerning Obedience to Humane Laws made by the Ecclesiastical or Civil Magistrate Concerning Obedience required to Humane Laws 1. CAtholicks do not affirm from God's commanding Obedience to the Ecclesiastical and Civil Magistrate and to their Laws That therefore all Dis-obedience to them or their Laws is a mortal Sin For so all Dis-obedience to any of their Laws whatever tho never so light for their matter would be mortal Sin 2. It is manifest that many times the matter which these Magistrates command is antecedently our duty in obedience to some Divine Law under Penalty of Mortal Sin tho they had not commanded it As in matters of much consequence to the publick or our private good the Charity to our Neighbour or also to our selves that is commanded by God's Law requires that which the Magistrate also exacts of us In such cases therefore there may be a great and mortal Sin committed in dis-obeying the Ecclesiastical or Civil Laws but this by vertue of the Divine concurring with and corroborating them in these particular Injunctions 3. Catholicks affirm That the Breach of a humane Law made in a thing that is left indifferent by the Divine out of contempt may be a greater Sin than breaking one of the Divine Precepts out of Infirmity but this is also by vertue of our offending against another particular Divine Law prohibiting such contempt of the Magistrate But such contempt neglect c. set aside that a much greater guilt is ordinarily contracted from the breach of a Divine than only an humane command both from the greater necessity and benefit in general of the matter of the Laws Divine and from the supreme Dignity and Majesty of the immediate Legislator 4. Catholicks affirm That no humane Laws made in matters of what consequence soever do bind beyond the Law-Giver's intention so that such Laws tho given in matters of greatest moment bind not under pain of mortal Sin I mean as they are his Laws if he doth not intend them to do so In whose Power since it is to lay no obligation so not to lay the greatest 5. That whatever obligation to Sin such Laws may have from the Law-givers intention yet that in some Circumstances they may not bind at all as the Divine do as in Periculo mortis cum pergravi damno aut infamia for quod valde difficile moraliter impossibile and to Impossibles Laws bind not I say if the thing commanded appear not of a greater consequence than such private damage nor hath been expressed by the Magistrate to be esteemed so Otherwise it is presumed that the Law-Giver in that Charity which he oweth to his Subjects doth or ought to pass his Laws without any intention that they should bind under Sin in such cases 6. Most of the Church's Laws are passed without any express Declaration of her Subjects incurring mortal Sin in the Breach of them yet this rationally collected by her Doctors from the great consequence of the matter commanded the heavy punishment annexed c. And sometimes her Laws are so indulgent as to oblige to a Penalty only without any Guilt laid upon the Transgressor of them HEAD XV. Of Justification Of Justification COncerning Justification whereby man hath Right by vertue of the Evangelical Covenant to freedome from eternal Death and possession of eternal Life 1. Catholicks declare That by Justification they mean both God's pronouncing or reputing Man just or not unjust i. e. freed from his wrath and from punishment due to the unjust by God's free remission of all his former Sins And 2ly God's making and so reputing him just or holy by habitual Grace infused or by inherent righteousness Thus making God's Remission of the former Acts of Sin and our Sanctification and so by it the removal of former habits of Sin the two parts of our Justification or the two effects of God's mercy in justifying us α. α Conc. Trid. Sess 6.7 c. Hanc dispositionem Justificatio ipsa consequitur quae non est Sola peccatorum remissio sed Sanctificatio Renovatio interioris hominis c. Again In ipsa Justificatione cum Remissione peccatorum haec omnia simul infusa accipit homo per Jesum Christum cui inseritur fidem Spem Charitatem 6. Sess 11. Can. Si quis dixerit homines justificari Sola peccatorum remissione exclusa gratia charitate quae in cordibus eorum per Spiritum Sanctum infunditur Anathema sit Bellarm. de Justificationes l. 2. 6. c. Cum tam mors Christi quam resurrectio ad justificationem necessaria esset potuisset Beatus Paulus utramque partem justificationis i. e. Remissionem peccati donum renovationis tribuere morti Christi sed maluit resurrectioni tribuere renovationem Rom. 4.15 And § Deinde Justificatio non ideo Solum nobis confertur a Deo ut Gehennae paenas evadamus i. e per remissionem peccatorum sed etiam ut praemia vitae caelestis acquiramus i. e. per gratiae infusionem bona opera And see Ibid. c. 2. § Quod si Where he makes remissionem peccatorum infusionem gratiae duos effectus Dei hominem justificantis Where therefore renovatio interioris hominis per susceptionem gratiae is affirmed to be the formal cause of Justification and deletion of Sin to be the effect of it It is spoken of the only formal
things very considerable in Sin the transient act and the remaining habit of which the later is far the worse and of which it is necessary that the one be deleted as well as the other pardoned for any one to be accounted positively just or not impious this later the habit is not removed or abolished but by Grace first infused and also whether before or rather after the same Grace infused our former actual Sins are pardoned is thought by Protestants a thing doubtful and not necessary to be decided δ δ. See the words of Calvin in Antidoto Conc. Trident. Of Beza contra Illyricum and others in Forbes de Justific 2. l. 4. c. p. 70 71. Simul nos justificari renovari saith Calvin dico in Christo per fidem nobis unito applicato neque haec an illa ordine antegrediatur tantillum laborandum censeo cum unam sine altera nunquam recipiamus This infusion of Grace therefore by several titles claims the chief place in our Justification and is that thing only in us that justifieth or maketh us to be really just and so is usually stiled the formal cause of our Justification 3. Meanwhile both the one and the other being the effects only of God's mercy Catholicks affirm That since God justifieth us not for those but for the righteousness and sufferings of Christ as the sole meritorious cause thereof it is not necessary as to our Justification in respect of inherent righteousness that this be every way consummate and perfect 4. Nay further they freely concede that it is such as that it doth produce some particular acts perfect and without contagion of Sin learned Protestants assenting ε. ε. Forbes Ibid. c. 5. Ecquid magis injuriose contumeliose dici potest in Christi Gratiam quam asserere nos nihilominus nihil prorsus vel cogitare vel dicere vel agere posse quod purum sit a peccati Sorde And § 13. Sententia haec rigida multis etiam doctissimis Protestantibus aliisque viris moderatissimis semper unprobata fuit quoting them at large Ibid. Yet ordinarily it doth many or the most mixt with several imperfections and that Venial Sins do both adhere to and intervene between many of the good actions of the justified ζ. ζ. Estius 2. Sent. 41. d. 4. § Et justi in iis operibus quae indubitate bona sunt saepe-numero peccant dum its se aliquonsque vel concupiscentiae vel negligentiae vel alicujus levioris circumstantiae ad integritatem boni operis requisitae defectus admiscent Forbes de Justificatione 4. l. 3. c. 8. § Communiter sentiunt Romani nullum Sanctorum vitare posse omnia venialia peccata per longum vitae tempus Conc. Trid. Sess 6. Can. 23. Which Sins after are remitted only by God's Mercy through Christ's Merits as those are before Justification γ. γ. Bellarm. de Justificat 4. l. 14. c. In Answer to the Objection Post primam reconciliationem Christus ociosus esset saith no Quoniam peccata nostra quamvis levia quotidiana ipse purgat sanguis ejus emundat nos ab omni peccato Estius 2. Sent. 42. d. 6. § Nemo quantumcunque justus nisi sanguine Christi Redemptoris etiam a Veniali peccato emundatus fuit in regnum Dei admitti potest See the same in Bellarm. de Justificat 4. l. 21. c. § Resp non dicit 5. Lastly Several learned Catholicks do not hold this inherent righteousness or internal renovation so absolutely necessary to mans Justification i. e. to remission of Sin or capacity of future Glory as that none possibly could had it so pleased God received from him pardon of his offences or also through virtue of Christ's merits an eternal glory without having such inherent righteousness and whilst he only reduced to his pure Naturals or that none could possibly or justly be deprived of Glory that hath such inherent righteousness Vid. Bellarmin de Justificat 2. l. 16. c. Reatus paenae quartus effectus Scotus 1. Sent. 17. d. F. a Sanct. Clara Deus Natura Prob. 23. But only maintaining that it is God's Pact or Covenant and declared Will that Christ's Merits should this and no other way merit for us freedome from Hell and life eternal Namely First by satisfying for our former Sins and procuring for us this donation of the sanctifying Spirit within us 2ly What Catholicks do include in and understand by Justification being thus explained Next they affirm that there is nothing in man that can antecedently merit this our Justification but that the sole meritorious cause of it both in respect of remission of Sin or any punishment due unto it and of the donation of Grace destroying in us the habits and pollutions of Sin and producing good works is the obedience active and passive the works labours sufferings and satisfactions of Jesus Christ only exclusive to the works sufferings or satisfactions of any other Where also they maintain that neither any works of our's done by the meer strength of nature have the least worth in them to procure God's assistant Grace for the producing of any previous disposition to this Justification as of Faith Repentance a love of God c. Nor again these dispositions tho wrought by assistant Grace and having some supernatural dignity in them have any such worth as by it to procure from God setting aside his meer bounty and free promise the Justification it self ζ. ζ. Conc. Trid. Sess 6.8 c. Nihil eorum quae justificationem praecedunt sive fides sive opera ipsam justificationis gratiam promeretur 'T is true that these dispositions to or conditions of man's Justification as effected by Grace having some true worth in them tho this no way comparable to the Acts produced by Grace inherent after Justification and besides having a gracious promise made to or acceptance of them which two things none can deny some Catholick Authors think that this word Meritum qualifying it with the addition de congruo may be justly applyed to them especially since St. Austine and other Fathers have so applyed it formerly St. Austine and other Fathers have so applyed it formerly St. Aust Ep. 105 106. others think not the matter agreed on the difference is about words and the Church's Subjects left to their liberty See Bellarm. de Justific 1. l. 21. c. And see Head XVI Merits 3. Yet they next affirm That there are some conditions or dispositions required of us and also by God's free first exciting and then assisting Grace man's Will assenting and co-operating wrought in us Which tho by any worth of theirs they cannot merit yet by vertue of God's free Promise and the new Covenant do certainly impetrate the applying or if Protestants Will imputing to us both the active and passive Obedience of Christ viz. all his Merits which are accepted by God instead of and as if they had been our own but this not as to our being esteemed by God our selves
paenitentiae dilectionis in Deum quae opera sunt interna Denique quinto omnem inanem fiduciam operum nostrorum Sive interne sive externe factorum Cap. 5. § 14. Proinde censemus omnem rigidorum Protestantium sententiam a veritate a charitate Christiana alienam esse qui assertionem de sola fide non justificante communiter a Romanensibus defensam citra omnem vel fidei ipsius vel meriti opinionem etiam improprie dicti vel aliorum operum seu actuum cum fide ad justificationem concurrentium non solùm cum sancta Scriptura piis Patribus e diametro pugnare contendunt sed etiam praeter alia innumera justam Protestantibus a Romana Ecclesia secedendi causam praebuisse praebere Dr. Hammond Pract. Catech. 1. l. § 4. p. 75. The necessary qualifications conditions or moral instruments of our Justification are Faith Repentance firm purpose of a new life and the rest of those Graces upon which in the Gospel pardon is promised the Christian And afterwards This kind of Sanctification so he calls the dispositions to Justification wrought in us by God's Grace is precedent in order of nature to Justification i.e. I must first believe repent and return before God will pardon 6. They affirm also that one may have a true faith or belief of all the Articles of our Creed and particularly of this man's Redemption through Christ's Merits or if we take Faith for fiducia may have also a fiducial confidence that he in particular shall obtain or if you will hath already obtained remission of his Sins through the same redemption and merits and yet not by this Faith or fiducia attain Justification if these be not accompanied with Repentance and the other necessary preparations thereto For there are many wicked and irregenerate men who yet do truly believe all the Articles of the Creed and are thereby fully convinced of their duty yet led away with lusts do contrary to what they know they ought and some of them who are also fully tho groundlesly for want of Repentance and the other requisites perswaded that themselves are of the number of the justified ξ ξ. Thorndike Epilog 2. l. p. 28. It is manifest to all Christians that there are too many in the world whom we cannot imagine to have any due title to those promises and yet do really and verily believe the Faith of Christ to be true and him and his Apostles sent from God to preach it And from their belief stand convict that they ought to proceed accordingly yet We see men not always to do that which reasonably from their belief they ought to do c. Again on the other side q Trust and confidence in God through Christ obtains the promises of the Gospel who denies it But is this trust always well grounded and true Is it not possible for a man to imagine his title to the promises of the Gospel to be good when it is not I would we had no cause to believe how oft it comes to pass All which argues these other Acts are necessary concurrents to Justification as well as such Faith For it seems very unreasonable that such Faith when without the other as many times it is is effectless as to attaining Justification and yet when it is with them they effectless and it doing the whole especially if the former Scriptures be reviewed using the same expressions of their concurrence to this effect as they do of Faith 7. Our Justification i. e. remission of Sin and infusion of habitual Grace which Infants also when baptized receive as well as others whereby we are made new creatures and by the infusion of his Holy Spirit born of God and his Seed remaining in us and so made his Sons and Heirs being thus attained upon our Faith and the other forementioned dispositions required in us Next Catholicks grant That the thus justified not only have a right to but may also attain the possession of eternal life before and without external good works issuing from such habitual or inherent Grace or before any justification or merit by them And that their works are not necessary to justification the producing or continuing of it or to the obtaining the reward of it eternal life when either power as in those who as yet have not the use of reason or who are prevented by suddain death or an occasion of such good works is wanting or also when occasion being offered yet the omission of such good works amount not to a mortal Sin by which Sins only man falls from his former Justification ξ. But 8ly They affirm which is also allowed by Learned Protestants π. pgr Dr. Field Append. to 3. l. 11. c. In Answer to Dr. Stapleton's Words That Actions of Virtue and careful endeavour to walk in the Commandments of God are not necessary to our second Justification or the augmentation progress and dayly perfecting of the same more and more is a Calumniation for they the Protestants make the second Justification to consist in two parts 1st The dayly well doing whereby the righteousness inherent is more and more perfected And 2ly the dayly remission of such sinful defects as are found in their actions Dr. Fern Answer to Scripture Mistaken p. 92. If they intend no more by second Justification than is here expressed in the Trent Decree viz. Renovation day by day and yielding up our Members as Weapons of Righteousness to Sanctification and increase in Righteousness we have no cause to quarrel at the thing but only that they will call that Justification which indeed is Sanctification Bishop Forbes de Justificat 4. l. 6. c. Perperam a Protestantibus rigidioribus rejicitur distinctio usitatissima justificationis in primam secundam Nam praeter Justificationem primam necessario etiam agnoscenda admittenda est justificatio secunda quae consistit in progressu augmento complemento pro statis vitae justitiae primum donatae in remissione illorum delictorum in quae quotidie justi incidunt Confirming it there with several Protestant Authorities That this first Justification thus attained before these good Works is in case of longer-life both necessarily continued by good Works or acts of inherent Grace either external or only internal where is some impediment of the external so that he who commits a mortal Sin in omission of such works falls from his former Justification and also is increased or further degrees of Justification or inhabitant Grace or as the Protestants had rather call it Sanctification received or added by the same good works for such acts external or internal do still increase the habit or render the person more holy whereby the already just is still made more just so Abraham tho just before yet was more highly justified by that Heroick act of the Oblation of his only Son Jam. 2. And the future reward also becomes greater to these good Works according to our greater Justification by
cause of Justification that is within us and from which we are denominated really just whereas the remission of Sin is an act of God without us and of the deletion of the habit of Sin inherent not of the pardon of the acts of Sin formerly committed After that this is agreed on also by Protestants that these two go always together and that none is reconciled or received into God's favour by remission of Sin who is not also at the same time renewed in his mind and made righteous by infusion of the Holy Spirit β. β. Calvin Institut Lib. 3. ch 14. § 9. Fatemur dum nos intercedente Christi justitia sibi reconciliat Deus ac gratuita peccatorum remissione donatos pro justis habet cum ejusmodi misericordia conjunctum hoc esse beneficium quod per Spiritum suum in nobis habitat Lib. 3. cap. 16. § 1. Jam utrumque nobis confert Christus utrumque fide consequimur vitae scilicet novitatem gratuitam reconciliationem De vera Christianae pacificationis ratione 2. Cap. Si quis ex adverso objiciat non aliter nos fieri participes Christi justitiae quia dum ejus Spiritu in obedientiam legis renovamur hoc quidem fatendum est c. Again Neque vero cum homines dicimus gratis justificari Christi beneficio tacenda est regeneationis gratia Quin potias cavendum ne a nobis separentur quae perpetuo Dominus conjungit Quid ergo Doceantur homines fieri non posse ut justi censeantur Christi Merito quin renoventur ejus Spiritu in sanctissimam vitam frustraque gratuita Dei adoptione gloriari omnes in quibus Spiritus regenerationis non habitat denique nullos a Deo recipi in gratiam qui non justi quoque vere fiant Mountague Appeal p. 170. Whom Christ doth not quicken he doth not justify This is directly the Doctrine of the Scripture Gal. 3.22 1. Cor. 6.11 Heb. 9.14 Rev. 1.5 6. 1. Pet. 2.9 Fathers also are cited c. Bishop Forbes de Justific Lib. 2. c. 4. Protestantes unanimi consensu fatentur inhaerentis justitiae seu sanctitatis infusionem cum gratuita nostri justificatione necessario ac perpetuo conjunctam esse Now first that our Justification consists not only in the former but also in the later Catholicks evidently collect from many Texts of Scripture which do apply our freedome from God's wrath and punishment and inheriting eternal life to this later as other Texts do to the former Such are these Rom. 3.24 Where we are said to be justified freely i. e. without any thing in us deserving it by his Grace i. e. infused as all grant it is at that time when God justifies us Titus 3.5 ver Where speaking of Baptisme the Apostle saith That according to his mercy he saved us by the laver of regeneration and renovation i. e. internal of the Holy Ghost that being justified by his Grace i. e. in this internal renovation c. we should be made Heirs of eternal life 1. Cor. 6.11 compared with the former where speaking of the same Baptisme he saith But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus into which they are baptized and by the Spirit of God i. e. infused in our Baptisme by which infused we are said here expresly as to be sanctified so justified and this put the last as also Rom. 8.30 it is put alone but there necessarily including also our Sanctification Rom. 4.25 Where Christ is said to be delivered for our offences i. e. the remission of them and to be raised again for our justification i. e. for our regeneration or renovation by the Spirit given unto us upon his Resurrection comp Rom. 8.10 Eph. 4.23 24. where the new man is said to be created in justice Gal. 5 6. comp 6.15 Rom. 6.7 He that is dead i. e. to Sin by a new life given by Grace is justified from Sin comp Gal. 3.21 Rom. 5.17.21 Where 't is said That those who receive abundance of Grace and donation of Justice shall reign in life c. And that Grace reigneth i. e. in us by or thr Justice to life eternal It were needless to add more To the same matter belong all those Texts wherein we are said By being born again and by inherent righteousness to be made Friends Domesticks Children Heirs of God All those Texts which atribute Salvation or also remission of Sin or punishment either to the several particular habits and branches of this inherent Righteousness as to that of Faith of Hope or Charity of the Love or Fear or Service of God or Love Mercy and Alms to our Neighbour or to the several Act of these Habits and Graces i. e. to our good works following Regeneration Lastly All those Texts wherein God is said To accept persons for their inherent holiness or righteousness And as this is evident in Scripture so it is concluded by many Protestants that the Term Justification both sometimes in Scripture and most frequently by the Fathers is used to signify not only remission of Sin but internal Sanctification and in this Latitude have several Protestants themselves explained it γ. γ. Bishop Forbes de Justificatione Lib. 2. Cap. 4. cioncerning the Scriptures Verbum justificari quandoque etiam in Scriptura significare justitia imbui vel donari non diffitentur permulti docti Protestantes contra aliorum rigidorum id pertinaciter negantium sententiam quoting there the words of Beza Zanchy Peter Martyr Chamier and others Again concerning the Fathers Ibid. c. 5. Hanc fuisse communem Patrum omnium tum Graecorum tum Latinorum Sententiam ex quamplurimis illorum dictis Augustini imprimis acerimi gratiae Christi propugnatoris nemini in veterum lectione versato obscurum esse potest Res adeo certa manifesta est ut dissentientes ipsimet Protestantes id ultro concedunt quoting the Confessions of Calvin Chemnitius Beza Bucer Chamier c. to this purpose Imo saith the same Forbes multi etiam doctissimi Protestantes hanc ipsam sententiam secuti sunt aut saltem eam non omnino improbarunt quoting after many others Spalatensis Bishop Mountague and Dr. Feild Whose words are Append. 3. l. 11. c. The first Justification implyeth in it three things remission of Sins past acceptation and receiving into that favour that righteous men are wont to find with God and the grant of the gift of the Holy Spirit and of that sanctifying and renewing Grace whereby we may be framed to the declining of Sin and doing of the works of righteousness 2. Again Catholicks contend that in comparing these two concurrents to our Justification the later i. e. to be made internally and habitually just ut peccatis mortui justitiae vivamus 1. Pet. 2.24 is the chiefer and more principal then the first i. e. to be reputed only not unjust or not a Sinner To which may be added that there being two
guess what a poor harvest there will be of good Works where they are thus only Free-will-offerings 12ly Their depressing the righteousness and true worth of good Works flowing from Grace infused and by this undervaluing the true Power of God's Grace given unto us and so by this again inconsiderately lessening the effects of Christ's merits also as purchasing this infusion of Grace whereby to forbear sinning as much as they seem to extol them in the pardoning of us whilst doing nothing but sinning lessening also the same merits in the removing of Sin whilst they make it in their Justification rather covered than the strength and habit deleted and eradicated misapplying Rom. ch 7. 13ly Their affirming that the pretended restoring of the once justified and afterwards faln from Grace to the State of Grace again taught and used in the Church is a thing meerly imaginary See Dr. Field Append. 3. l. p. 312. for that he who is once justified can never be unjustified and who are once assured of their Justification are also assured of perseverance in it happen afterwards what sin will happen Which sins also consequently tho of the same kind must not be in these persons of the same guilt as in others i. e. losing the Kingdome of Heaven 1. Cor. 6. and so these persons being indeed though they perswade themselves otherwise by such sins faln from Grace Now are the Keys of the Church and those Sacraments and such a measure of repentance neglected whereby they might have been restored and so the last state of these men worse than the first that before their justification and their end miserable because too much conceited and secure These are the Tenents of some more rigid Protestants in the Point of Justification in opposition to the Roman Doctrines In some of which if perhaps their meaning may by a charitable construction be reconciled to truth yet do their expressions seem very pernicious to a good life and easily misunderstood by the vulgar or those who take them in the most obvious sense HEAD XVI Of Merit Of Merit COncerning the Merits of Grace inhabitant or of the good Works that proceed from it 1. Catholicks do generally disclaim any merit of them in such a sense as the word Merit is explained by Protestants See Field Append. 3. l. p. 324. Forbes de Justifica 5. l. 3. c. p. 197. viz. First Ut opus sit nostrum non ejus a quo mercedem expectamus 2ly Ut sit indebitum 3ly Ut nihil unquam faciendum omittatur nec omittendum committatur sive quoad partes sive gradus 4ly Ut sit aequalitas inter opus mercedem Or yet as Merit is taken in the former Covenant of Works involving the first and third of these Conditions They willingly granting That as there are no works of our's done by Grace assistant tho having some worth in them that can merit our Justification so neither any Works of the already justified proceeding from Grace infused and inhabitant tho having yet a greater worth in them that can merit the future divine reward promised to them as condigne i. e. as any way in strict justice equalling it α. α. Bellarm. de Justific 5. l. 14. c. Opera bona si considerentur ex natura sua remota promissione dignitate principii operantis nullam habent proportionem ad beatitudinem illam supernaturalem proinde non eis debetur ex justitia merces aeternae vitae quoting Rom. 8.18 Luk. 19.17 Matt. 19.29 centuplum 2. Cor. 4.17 and in his using the Phrase ex condigno for this reason because their Works have not only a promise made to them of a reward but also a dignity by reason of the divine principle of them God's Grace in us that hath some correspondency or similitude to the reward as the Seed to the fruit a lesser degree of Grace here to a higher measure there-of here and hereafter in the next world yet he disclaims any equality in a sense strictly taken as most clearly appears in his answer to the Objection made against condignity viz. the great inequality of our present Works tho proceeding from Grace and life eternal especially taken for the Object thereof Deus merces nostra magna nimis as also the inequality of the imperfect knowledge and charity we have here to that perfect we shall receive for it hereafter To which he answers Ibid. c. 18. Negari non potest quin beatitudo longe excellat actioni meritoriae cum in illa sit coguitio charitas perfecta in ista vero sit cognitio charitas imperfecta And That Non requiritur absoluta aequalitas inter meritum praemium secundum justitiam distributivam ut dici possit praemium ex condigno etiam ex parte operis sed sufficit ut sit proportio quaedam secundum quam is qui meretur dici possit dignus eo praemio And That Ideo dicimus ex condigno deberi fidei formatae per charitatem visionem cum ardentissima charitate quia dignum est ut res a Deo inchoata disposita tandem aliquando perficiatur absolvatur Granting also there that God doth always remunerare justorum opera supra condignum This account gives this Cardinal of the Word Condignum See the like in Scotus 1. l. 17. d. 1. q. Praemium speaking of aeterna beatitudo est majus bonum merito justitia stricta non reddit melius pro minus bono ideo bene dicitur quod Deus semper praemiat ultra meritum condignum See more Testimonies tending to this purpose below ε. and Head _____ Letters χ. Ï. Ï„. Ï…. φ. Or Secondly As nostra or ex nobis or 3ly As indebita γ. 1. or 4ly All of them quoad partes gradus perfect and free from faults See Head XV. of Justification Further also conceding that these good Works in order to that meriting which is by Catholicks ascribed to them do stand in need of the supply or support of the Merits of our Lord and that in many several respects 1st Both for procuring the gift of that Grace to us which in us procures or produceth these good Works β. 2ly And for procuring the Pact and Promise which God hath made to them without which whatsoever their worth had been they could have claimed from God no such reward 3ly And for the remission of the imperfections and Venial Sins accompanying many of them pardoned to us for Christ's not their Merit see Head XV. 4ly And lastly For the exhibiting to God an Obedience which in its true worth equalizeth or if you will exceeds the reward for Catholicks affirm a meritorious cause as of our Justification so of our Glorification perfectly equalling life eternal and the highest degrees thereof which any one receiveth but this not in us or our Works α but in Christ the effect of whose merits is dispenced to us for this end according to the measure of these our Works which as the