some condition But I think there is none can say there is no condition Therefore it remains that we confess there is necessarily some condition Which of what manner it is let us examin by the Scriptures But in the mean while perhaps some Man will object If the promise of God be confined to certain conditions how then shall we with Paul make the mercy of God free whereby he freely justifies the Wicked Yea verily I both judge and hold that the Mercy of God is most free Free I say in Christ. Otherways without Christ there can be no hope of Mercy nor promise of Salvation nor remission of Sins And the Sons of the Papacy will not deny this that all the riches of the Divine promise and of our Salvation stand in Christ. And indeed in so much they are in the right For hereby I understand the Mediatour by whom God dispenses his Heavenly gifts to us That 〈◊〉 Christ. But I do not yet perceive well enough how he dispenses by this Mediatour For tho I acknowledge him to be Mediatour to whose merit only we are beholden for all our Salvation yet because this Salvation by the Merit of Christ is not Communicated unto all neither is it derived to us but upon a certain Condition I would gladly learn of those Men what is that Condition prescribed unto us by God to obtain Salvation or how this meritorious Efficiency of the Mediatour Works in us And here presently Answers Lombard and others that favour the Lombardick Discipline that it comes to pass this way To wit by Charity infused through the Merits of Christ which being received by our voluntary taking it in we are incontinently not only named just but are really so O Divines As if Christ had been given to us and had come from the Father for no other purpose but that he might procure unto us the Divine Infusion of Charity as they call it And why could he not by Prayers obtain this same infusion from his most bountiful Father when he was present here what was the Father so hard and so inexorable that he could not be mitigated by any Prayers to communicate the benefit of grace to any Man without the death and Blood of his own dearly beloved Son But what hindered Because he was not willing who by nature is Charity it self Or because he was not able who is in Majesty Omnipotent But now being endued with the gift of Charity what will you obtain by that You say Salvation and Righteousness Upon what account will you obtain that Because Charity being the fulfilling of the Law thereby it comes to pass that Charity being spread abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost and inflaming us to the Obedience of the Law it easily performs all those things which are the duties of life so that we are now not only accounted but in reality are called and are indeed Righteous That is right indeed Therefore if I am not mistaken this is it which I see those Men drive at that all our hope of Salvation is placed in the performance of the Law And that the Summary of the Divine promise is contained in that condition if we perform the things that pertain to the Law Which because they cannot be performed without Supernatural Infusion of Charity therefore Charity informing the mind with the love of the Divine Law is called by them Righteousness Ingenuous Reader you have the Summary of this Sophistical Divinity briefly described Concerning which that you may judge more rightly look now at this wonderful Order of Causes Concerning the Threefold cause of Iustification 1. Conditional 2. Formal 3. Meritorious 1. FIrst they place the end of all Righteousness and the Salvation promised to us in the observance of the Law upon this condition that if the Law be performed we may live but if not there should remain no other way of obtaining Life 2. But because this perfect performance of the Law according to the due manner of doing as they speak is not in the power of Nature nor in the Law it self without a special Supplement of grace as they call it therefore they necessarily require Charity spread abroad in our Hearts which they define the formal cause of Iustification 3. But now by what ways and means this infusion of Grace and Charity is obtained they assign two causes chiefly of which the one is placed in the Death of Christ as the Meritorious cause The other they place in the voluntary acceptance of our Will which because it could reject this grace which it accepts according to its liberty therefore they Attribute unto it the Merits of Meriting at least de congruo or Agreeableness and in the mean while Faith amongst those Men is nothing valued or accounted of And it is no wonder for they do not understand by the Gospel what Gospel Faith is neither do they seem to have had any experimental knowledge what the power and efficacy thereof is But that I may answer the Sophistical talks of these Men First as touching the next and last cause of Iustification which they say consists in the perfection of the Law how false it is and contrary to the Gospel who is so void of the knowledge of the Gospel but clearly perceives it For tho' the voice of the Law confines us by a most rigid necessity to the perfect condition of performing all Righteousness yet the meek voice of the Evangelical promise sounds far otherways Which requires no other condition to obtain Salvation but Faith only whereby we believe in the Son of God But what should you say to those Men who know scarcely any more difference between the Law and Gospel than Night Owls that are dimsighted at Noon-day Concerning the Formal cause of Iustification AND that is no less false which they most vainly dream concerning a formal cause which is easily confuted after this manner First that we may grant this that Charity should be reckoned amongst the chiefest gifts of God which being so often praised by the Apostle cannot be praised enough by any Man yet never was there given to any Man in this life so great an excellency therein that he should fulfill all the Righteousness of the Law Whence because charity of life as they call it is imperfect for we love in part according to theMagisterial Sentence that can neither be called Righteousness nor be the form of Faith Unto this there is added another reason because when it is given most largely yet Charity is never given for this end that it may justifie us in the sight of God nor that it may inform faith but rather that it self may be informed by faith and may be subservient to faith for Works of Charity are fruits of faith not the cause of faith they follow but do not go before faith For Magdalen did not therefore believe in Christ because she loved Christ but because she
believed in Christ therefore she loved much Now if that be called the formal cause by Philosophers which furnishes matter with Life and Soul and if Divines account this the life whereby we live to God what then will they say to the Prophetical Scripture whereby the Iust is said to live not by Charity but by faith What also will they answer to the Words of Christ in which he teaches that life Eternal consists in this that we should know the Father the true God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent And again where in very evident Speech he Attributes life to faith only and not to Charity He that believeth in the Son faith he hath Eternal Life Concerning the Meritorious cause of Iustification BUT in the mean while because these things have been already largely discoursed of there follows after this that which is next in this Series of causes that we should now examine with the like briefness the Meritorious cause of Iustification which those Men by the Authority of Trent comprehend only and wholly in Christ. And now what then will those Scribes and Disputers of this World answer here What do the Works of the Iust Merit nothing in the sight of God Do they help nothing towards the obtaining of Righteousness And where then is that Merit de Gongruo and condigno Where are the Works of Supererogation that are above due Where is that grace which the Sacraments confer upon us ex opere oper ato By what Argument now will Andrew Vega defend this Axiom of his Faith says he and other good Works whereby we are disposed unto grace that makes us acceptable and whereby we are formally justified and made acceptable to God are Meritorious by the way of agreeableness of such grace and of our Iustification c. Whence it is evident that either Christ is not the only Meritorious cause of such grace or that all the other helps of Merits are of no value Though in the mean while I do not deny that the death of Christ is truly Meritorious but let the adversaries consider diligently what it hath merited That the spiritual help say they of Divine Grace and Charity to perform the Law might be diffused into us What then Dyed Christ for no other cause but that he might obtain the gift of Charity for Mortal Men to perform the Law Did he not rather dye upon this account that he might blot out the Hand writing which was against us in the Law having nailed it to his 〈◊〉 that he might take away the Enmity and might destroy Death for ever might dispossess the Devil of his Kingdom that there might be food and sustenance for our hunger that he might make Principalities and Powers subject to his Triumpham Dominion that he might take possession of all Power in Heaven and in Earth What if the power of Charity to perform the Law is so great as they preach could not this Charity otherways get entrance unless the Son of God dyed Yea were not the Patriarchs Prophets and many others of the Saints adorned with the same supernatural gifts Moreover since the Death of Christ is there so great an influence of Grace present with any man that he is able to fulfil all Righteousness Because the Merit of Christ is perfect it is necessary that those things also should be perfect which he hath merited for us by his most perfect price But on the contrary my Opinion is that I think Christ to be indeed the meritorious cause of our Iustification and that he is not so much the meritorious as the efficient cause of our Renovation seeing it is he that baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with Fire Suppose we grant that this Charity flows in upon us by the Merit of Christ yet I do not therefore call this same infusion of Grace a cause of meriting Iustification nor any part of a cause thereof but it seems rather fit to be reckoned amongst the effects and fruits of Iustification which follow from thence neither doth it follow because the works of Grace and Charity come to us by the Merit of Christ that therefore the same do merit Iustification before God for it relies upon no condition of works at all but only the promise and that a free one also and so free that it implies no condition except one only And because in this place we enquire what is that only and peculiar condition the Doctrine of the Gospel will easily teach us if so be we are more willing to hearken to the Gospel than to the Opinions of Trent On what condition properly doth the Promise of Iustification rely BUT the condition whereby we are properly justified is this That we should believe in Christ and adhere to him by a constant confession In which Faith in the mean while a diligent Caution should be observed that this Faith should be directed unto a proper and legitimate Object which I wonder that it hath not yet been taken notice of by those School Doctors hitherto Of whom some place the Object of Faith in the first Truth Others take for its Object all things that are written in the holy Scriptures Others do esteem for the Object of Faith all things that are laid before us to be believed by the Authority of the Catholick Church And they say not amiss for I deny not that all these things are both truly and necessarily to be believed by every man For he that believes the whole Architecture of this World was framed by the handy-work of God in the space of six days he is indeed led by a right Faith as all Truths are to be believed with a most sure Faith whatsoever are mentioned in the Books of the Scripture which Faith of every particular Truth as I suppose doth not therefore justifie a man For the sense of our question is not what is truly believed by us but what Faith that is which justifies the wicked before God from his sins and that we should search by the Gospel what is the proper Object of this Faith In the mean while that is a very ridiculous thing and too barbarous that the Pope in his Decretals reduces the Object of Faith to the Keys and Succession of the Roman Chair and that as necessary to Salvation but away with this Deceiver and his Cheats Concerning Faith and Assurance and what is the proper Object of Faith NOW let us discourse of others who reasoning with more sound Iudgment about Faith do not fetch the proper and genuine Object of Faith whereby we are justified so far off from the very first Truth as Thomas nor reduce it to every particular Truth of Scripture as the Colonienses nor define it by the Decrees of the Church as the Duacene Doctor and Iesuits of that Place and Order nor place it in the Infallible Authority of the Roman Chair as Boniface but coming much nearer to Evangelical Truth do
contained in Christ only who is the only begotten Son of God And because our Faith only lays hold on him and he cannot profit any but Believers therefore it comes to pass that faith only without works that is without any merits of works compleats all our Righteousness before God Concerning the Praise of Repentance the Dignity and Benefit and Peculiar Office thereof BUT you will say to what purpose then is it to repent and to amend evil deeds or what shall be answered to these Scriptures which promise in more places than one the pardon of all sins to those that lament their sins and are converted unto a better life That I may answer these I would have you take notice of this in the first place When we attribute the vertue of justifying to Faith and in this case place it alone being helped by no addition of our works Let no man so mis-understand as if we did drive away and 〈◊〉 all saving Repentance and other holy Offices of Duty and Charity from every action of life as Andradius falsly gathers against Chemnitius For that we may openly confess the truth what else is this whole life of Godly Men but a continual repentance and a perpetual detestation and condemnation of sin whilst we are forced by the Gospel with daily groans to breath forth this Petition Forgive us our sins as if we were conflicting in a continual place of wrestling in which sometimes we stand by the Spirit sometimes we fall through the infirmity of the Flesh and sometimes we again make new repentance yet we always overcome and triumph by Faith to wit obtaining the pardon of our faults and we obtain true righteousness for ever Therefore away with impudent slanders let just judgment be exercised and let things be comprehended each in their own places and bounds Pious tears a serious deploring of former destruction and a just care of living a better life with all other pious exercises are things which we do not thrust away nor put out of their place only we search what is the place what is the peculiar office of those things And in the first place this is a thing that should not be doubted of by any Man that Repentance as it is an excellent gift of God so it brings forth fruits not to be repented of according to its Office the Office or duty whereof I reckon to be twofold The first is that which duly detests the sins committed The other that which diligently endeavours the Reformation of the life from which follows both great praise and greater fruits and also very great incitements to vertue For he that being weary of his former wickedness applys his mind wholly to amend his ungodly Life by a future reformation verily he hath made a great progress towards Salvation but he is not therefore as yet put into a certain possession of Salvation or because of that taken up with the Penitent Malefactor into Paradise For it is one thing to weep for the things that one hath done amiss and another thing to obtain the pardon of them Verily he that seriously purposes with himself to amend his life I judge that he ought justly to be praised but yet that is not enough as I suppose to turn away the anger of an offended God to put away the heinous nature of Sin to procure a clear tranquility of Conscience and to shake off the tyranny of death for to obtain that Victory we will need another Panoply or compleat Armour than Repentance or the forces of our vertues for nothing that we can do is sufficient to bring this to pass but only faith in the Son of God And therefore Repentance with Charity and other Offices of that kind have a necessary connexion with faith not that they may give form to this as to a dead matter but that rather they may receive life and Spirit from it not that Faith hath need of these for justification but that they themselves may be justified by the value received by Faith in Christ which unless they were recommended upon the account of that Faith would all be abominable in the sight of God and though they may be call'd works yet cannot be call'd good works in Gods account unless they are supported by Faith Whence Augustin admonishing not without cause commands us to believe in him that justifies the Wicked that our very good works may be good works for those deserve not to be called good as long as they proceed not from a good root c. But here you object approved Testimonies and Examples rehearsed out of the Sacred Oracles of Divine Scripture in which without any mention of Faith Salvation is assuredly promised to them that Repent as in Ezekiel I de sire not the death of a Sinner but that the wicked should turn from his way and live There are set before us the Examples of the Ninivites of David Manasseh and others and lest I should weary you with Rehearsing of every one of them which are infinite I will make a short Collection of the whole inatter You say that thus the Prophets proclaim and openly avouch this thing that there is no hope of Salvation shewed unto any but only those who are with their whole heart brought back from an unclean and wicked life to the practise of Holiness c. And presently concluding with this Opinion you teach us that there is no other way at all either to avert destruction or procure salvation Lest I should speak many things in vain there is one Answer abundantly sufficient for all such Objections that there is indeed necessarily required a sincere reformation of heart and life in these who are to obtain life as in an Heir for whom there is appointed the possession of an Inheritance to be enjoyed there is necessarily required dutifulness towards his Father which dutifulness nevertheless when it is most exactly performed is not any cause of obtaining the inheritance And in like manner there is nothing that can be more certain than that Repentance and Renovation do much commend the life of Christians to God yet it makes them not Christians neither doth it so much commend the person of the Penitent as it is it self commended by the dignity of the man who if he is a Christian his Repentance is approved But if he be an Alien from the faith the lamenting of sin doth not at all profit for the obtaining of Righteousness neither doth it take away Sin But as you say Repentance hath Divine Promises and indeed I am not against your Opinion in that for God doth not desire the death of a Sinner promising also life to him that repents That 's right But let us see how he promises it and by pondering the Circumstances of things times and persons let us consider what is promised and to whom and what is the true cause of promising Indeed the old Law hath dark promises the Gospel
Concl. Therefore from Faith men are rightly and formally called righteous before God Again Ma. They that do justly should be called just before God Mi. They that believe in the Son of God do most justly Concl. Therefore they that believe in the Son of God are deservedly called just For what can any man do more justly or more holily than to believe in the only begotten Son of God and to embrace him with all his faith as the Gospel bears witness This is the work of God that ye should believe in him whom he hath sent And what Doctrine is more excellent than to know Christ the Son of God aright and the power of his Death and Resurrection Which knowledge how much it is valued by God above all other disciplines and arts it may appear by this which is foretold unto us of Christ by the Divine Prophet and my Righteous Servant saith he by his Knowledge shall justifie many What if our Iustification is placed only in the knowledge of the Son of God and the Faith of the Son is nothing else but knowledge Divinely Inspired what credit then should be given to those Iesuitical Sophisters who neither admit of any external cause of justifying nor acknowledge any other but this which they themselves place in Works And now what will they answer to this Argument of Augustin Ma. Whence we are saved thence we are just Mi. By Faith we are saved and reconciled to God and become Conquerors according to that saying of the Gospel This is the Victory which overcomes the World our Faith Conclu Therefore by Faith the name of Righteousness is rightly given to us according to the Testimony of Augustin But those Praters will not yet hold their Peace neither do they endure any either Internal or External Righteousness but this only which they describe in Works and the observance of the Law And they endeavour to prove it by this caption First then as touching Faith though that is an internal Vertue yet they plead that it doth not otherways justifie but upon the account of Charity But thus they dispute concerning the righteousness of Christ Because it is not our own but is peculiar to Christ. There is no cause why a Man should take upon him the Name of Righteous from that Righteousness which is anothers to wit according to the Law of Aristotle Which how frivolous it is and contrary to the Faith of the Gospel it will not be difficult to demonstrate by very clear words of Scripture for to what purpose is the Divine Love Preached in the Gospel and in the Prophets to have given Christ his only begotten Son unto the World Unless he had been willing to make us partakers together with him of all his Wealth Vertues Merits and whatsoever good things belong to him Whence Paul He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things What if Christ was given to us byhis Father poured forth exposed and is wholly made ours with all his goods and gifts is there any thing in him whether Wisdom or Iustice or Sanctification or Life or Victory or Death or any other thing besides which we may not by a due right lay claim to as our own If it is ours upon what account then do those Gymnosophists Preach that it belongs not to us Of which thing we may reason thus Ma. Whatsoever Christ did for us is esteemed ours just as if it had been done by our selves Mi. Christ fulfilled all Righteousness for us Conclu Therefore all the Righteousness of Christ is ours by Faith just as if it had been fulfilled by us It is 〈◊〉 by the Example of Adam that Christ's Righteousness is ours PErhaps the thing will appear more evident by Example Let us look upon Adam and in him let us behold the publick calamity of our Nature And also let us contemplate Salvation restored again by the second Adam from the ruine received by the first For if the Doctrine and Force of contraries be the same according to Philosophers it will be more easie by that means from the Evil of the one to judge of the advantages of the other Then let us compare both Adams with one another The first Earthly of the Earth with this second Heavenly from Heaven Who though in their whole Nature they are most different one from another Yet by the singular Wisdom of God it so comes to pass that there is a wonderful resemblance between things that differ very much and the reason of our Salvation being restored agrees most aptly with the reason of the ruine received First in this that both were Originally Princes and Authors of our Propagation one of the Earthly and the other of the Heavenly And then afterwards there was added another thing in which he was a wonderful Type and Image of Christ who was to come a long time after How that came to pass we shall very well learn of Paul himself As saith he by the Disobedience of one Man many were made Sinners So by the Obedience of one many shall be made Righteous and doubling the same again and again in many words As faith he by one Man Sin entred into the World and by Sin Death came upon all Men in that all have Sinned c. And presently If therefore by the Sin of one Man Death came upon all Men to Condemnation in like manner by the Iustification of one Man good is propagated unto all Men to the Iustification of Life What is more clear than these words of the Apostle The whole force and summ of the Argument drives at this that the true Nature of our Righteousness is not due to our Vertues but we must be beholden for it to the merit of another Setting before us such a sense as this by Argument Argument Ma. In what manner Unrighteousness is propagated in the World in the same manner also Righteousness comes Mi. Unrighteousness is propagated by the Sin of one Man Only Conclu Therefore also Righteousness by the merit of one only is derived unto all that are allied to Christ by Faith Otherways Ma. As the matter is between Adam and us after the same manner is the matter between us and Christ. Mi. The sin of one Adam is imputed to all his Posterity yea all those who transgressed not with him Conclu Therefore The Righteousness of one Christ is imputed to all his Posterity to wit that believe in him though they did not obey with him Which things seeing they are of themselves clear and conspicuous the Point calls us to return to you O most excellent Osorius who seem either not to head carefully enough or else perniciously to deny that which Paul Discourses of Imputation so copiously and weightily Wherefore again and again beseeching you I appeal to this sacred Righteousness whereof you write and also to the equity of your own humanity that having
yours deserves You only look at how much you proceed in running but you do not also take heed how much you fail in your race And after all these things do you yet boast of your merits as if the reward of the Everlasting state were due to your Labours In which assertions I do not drive at this to dissolve the Pious endeavours of making Progress or to dishearten them by desperation For the Admonition of the Apostle is not in vain so run that ye may obtain And again no Man is Crowned except he strive Lawfully Let us therefore so strive that we may be Crowned let us so run that we may obtain But we do not therefore obtain because we run but we do therefore run because the promise is made to them that run not to them that slumber So that the running is not the cause of the promise but the promise stirs up to running and adds alacrity to the runners Therefore the Apostle that he may make them the more valiant in striving adds this promise your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. And speaking of himself I have fought saith he the good fight and a Crown of Righteousness is laid up for me c. What then do you not see that labours well performed have their own reward due to them Be it so indeed But we treat not here of the labours of Men but of the merits of Labours we do not ask with what rewards the goodness of God dignifies us but what we our selves deserve to receive For there is no small difference between Gift and Merit If Merit is called that to which a recompense of reward is due by reason of its equality it is certain there is no equality between those things which we do here on Earth and those things which being promised we expect in Heaven The Inheritance of the Everlasting Kingdom is promised not that which upon the account of hire is due to our Works but which is promised to our Faith by the free gift of God Whence Paul when he said the wages of Sin his Death he doth not add next thereunto the reward of them that live Godly is Life Eternal But the grace saith he or the gift of God is Eternal Life And why doth he not as well say the reward of Righteousness is Eternal Life But that the difference between gift and reward between grace and recompence might be evident For if it is of grace than it is not of works If of works than it is not of grace But now that he might manifest the Infinite Riches of Divine Grace towards us through Christ Iesus He Proclaims openly that we are saved through Grace by Faith And that not of our selves it is the gift of God not of Works lest any Man should boast Which also elsewhere inculcating more clearly He says not by works of Righteousness which we have done How then But according to his mercy hath he saved us And now what is that mercy but the favour and loving kindness of God which remitting the rigour of Iustice spares those that are unworthy pardons the penitent receives them that are undone into favour which favour or mercy also glories against Iudgment All which being so what should be said of the Hypocritical Fathers of Trent who by the publick decree of their Senate pronounce those accursed whosoever dare say that the grace of God whereby we are justified is only the favour of God The Absurd Paradox of the Tridentines whereby they deny that we are justified by the favour of God only BUT Now by what other thing then will they say that we are justified if we obtain it not by the favour of God only By the Law But that works Wrath By the works of the Law But the Apostle expresly excludes those Not of works lest any Man should boast But here I call to mind the ordinary Glosse which doth resolve no difficulty but makes one by it's subtile comment partly affirming that we are justified by works and partly denying it For thus it says our works as they are ours have no power to justifie yet consider them as they are not from us but are wrought by God in us through Grace they merit Iustification And for that cause the Apostle would not say the wages of Righteousness is Eternal Life But chose rather to say the grace of God is Eternal Life Why so Because saith this device those merits to which Eternal Life is rendered are not from us but they come from grace whence they receive the vertue of meriting O wise yea rather wild talk to vilifie grace What if the Spirit of Christ influencing the Hearts of his own stirs up the Holy Offices of Charity and excellent motions to Piety What doth not the same Spirit also vouchsafe all other gifts to his Church bestowing on some gifts of Prophesie on others divers kinds of Tongues on others admirable Vertues of Curing and Healing and on others of Teaching for the Edification of the Saints What shall we therefore place our whole Iustification in those gifts received from Christ I know that there are both many and eminent vertues wherewith the Spirit of Christ always adorns his Church but it is one thing to adorn another thing to justifie the Church The gift of Sanctification is one thing the cause of justifying is another both whereof though Christ perform by his grace yet he Sanctifies one way and Iustifies another for he Sanctifies by his Spirit but he Saves and Iustifies only by his Death and Blood But you will say if Salvation is not placed in Grace why then is the grace of God called by Paul Eternal Life Verily it is certain and must be confessed which Paul teaches that our Life must be attributed wholly unto grace to which also it behoves us to attribute all other things But we must look what way this grace saves and justifies for it is that on which the whole controversy depends In which the generality of the adversaries are greatly deceived Against the Tridentines It is Demonstrated by the Scriptures that the grace of God whereby we are Iustified consists only in the free favour of God and Remission of sins not in the Merits of Works or Infusion of Charity THomas Aquinas and they that follow him according to the gloss which they call ordinary do not deny that which the Apostle affirms That we are saved by the Grace of God But if you ask after what manner they answer that it comes to pass upon the account of good Works For these are the words of the Gloss Grace says it is called Eternal Life because it is rendered to those Merits which grace hath conferred And to the same Sense are the Comments of Orbelius Bonaventure Halensis and others because say they without grace no Man can observe the Commands of God And Thomas adds elsewhere that to fulfill the Commands of the Law according to the
thus define Faith unto us that they place its Object in the Mercy of God only For thus is Faith defined by most of our Divines at this day to wit That it is a firm and constant relyance on the Mercy of God promised freely for the sake of Christ. Which definition if it be true by this means it appears that the Object of Faith is placed no otherways nor in any other thing but in the free Mercy of God laid hold upon which neither I my self deny to be true in this sense as Faith in this place is taken for a relyance as it is often used in this signification because it hath a respect to Mercy and brings forth Assurance in the mind of Believers But whether this relyance properly justifies us before God it may here be enquired not without profit A Question Whether only relyance on Mercy justifies of it self Verily as for my part I am not nor ever was the man that would be prejudicial to another man's Opinion I allow that every man should be persuaded in his own mind I hinder it not But if I am permitted freely to profess in a free Church what my Opinion is my reason leads me to think that this relyance on Mercy and assurance of Salvation promised must be a thing very nearly joyned with Faith and which every man ought to apply to himself but then when it is most applied it is not that which properly and absolutely unloads us of our sins and justifies us before God but that there is some other thing proposed in Gospel which by Nature should in some respect go before this assurance and justifie us in the sight of God For Faith in the person of the Son which reconciles us to God doth necessarily go before And then relyance on most assured Mercy follows this Faith concerning which none of those that believe in Christ can doubt Objection But you may say What doth not Mercy promised in Christ go before the vocation of Faith doth not the same Mercy freely justifie Believers Moreover seeing the Promises of God are most sure may not the same be safely and constantly trusted in That I may answer these men Indeed the Mercy of God moves first no man doubts of that which is the cause and original of all good things But it is not that which is matter of Controversie in this place Whether Mercy on God's part is the Mother of our Iustification but what that is on our part which hath power with God for our Reconciliation whether relyance on Mercy or Faith in the Person of the Son I know that the Mercy of God is immense and infinite in which is comprehended all the Election of the Saints Neither am I ignorant that those things are most sure which are proposed to be believed in the Articles of the Creed than which as nothing is more sure so neither is there any thing which any man ought to doubt of about the assurance of those things which are promised or concerning the faithfulness of the Promiser For what is more sure than the Promises of God what more stable than the faithfulness of the Promiser what more free than Mercy freely proposed in Christ Wherefore the rather this unsavoury and no less reproachful barking of Hosius Andradius and such like men should be hissed away out of the Society of Christians who kicking against the pricks bring all things into doubt and uncertainty with the Academicks and they look upon it as a thing unsufferable for a man to take upon him to rely upon the promise of Salvation which they of Trent condemn with an Anathema Hosius detests it as vain and unprofitable arguing as if this assurance of Divine Grace did nothing but open to the Consciences of men a door to a certain slothful laziness and dissolute life Therefore saith he as prudent Fathers and Masters sometimes do they hide their Love towards their Children and Servants that they might keep them the more in fear and in their duty So God doth also towards his Servants that being kept wavering between hope and fear he may by that means the more easily drive them from security and negligence c. Concerning the Assurance of Christian Reliance against Hosius A Worthy comparison for sooth of God and Men which disannuls and destroys all the Promises of God the whole Doctrine of the Gospel yea and the foundations of all Religion For to what purpose should God promise by his Word if he would not have us assured of those things which are promised A Son was promised to Abraham and he believed not at all distrusting him that promised and it is accounted a praise to him What then Do you praise the undaunted confidence of Abraham and do you dispraise ours In like manner the Seed to come was promised to miserable Adam To what purpose that he might stick in a trembling wavering diffidence or rather that he might support his mind with the expectation of the promised consolation There are so many engagements of promises in both Covenants which if the Divine Truth would not have made sure unto us why then would he have them written in the Word and recorded in Books Briefly why are we commanded in the Christian Articles of Faith to believe the remission of sins the Resurrection of the flesh and Life Eternal but that we might reckon those things to be most sure unto us which are inserted in the Articles Therefore that is false which Hosius affirms That no man is bound to believe firmly or to hold assuredly either concerning himself or this man or that man that his sins are forgiven him for Christ's sake that he is in a state of grace and that he is assuredly to possess the Kingdom of Heaven c. And again neither is that less false which he fathers upon men of our persuasion as if we held thus that every man is a partaker upon that account only because he hath determined himself to be a person that will be accepted of God which is not true and is not without an impudent calumny For we are not of such an Opinion as to believe that an assured persuasion of Mercy should by any means be separated from Iustifying Faith which the Divines of the Popish way do abominably neither again do we transfer properly the very cause of Iustification into this confidence and naked application of Marcy as they falsly slander us Why so because yet some other thing is wanting which must needs go before this application of the Promise and which is necessarily required to the true cause of Iustifying The cause of Iustification depends not on confidence or the application of Mercy only YOU will say What then Is not the free Promise of God a most true cause on which our whole Iustification depends If you say on God's part it is true if you ask on our part you must go further and something seems to
be necessarily joyned with the Promise Now that we may set the thing more evidently before your eyes God promises Salvation to his own and that freely and for Christ's sake That indeed is most certain and beyond all controversie Go on And you put trust in the Promise of God You do very well in doing so and I commend the constancy of your confidence When Salvation is promised freely for Christ's sake shall therefore an absolute Promise save all men promiscuously for Christ's sake without any restriction of condition I suppose God will not save all promiscuously Now then this Promise belonging not to all but some certain persons only upon some certain condition I would know who those are to whom this Promise properly belongs You say Believers and in that you say well but how or believing in whom Are they not those that believe in Christ himself Is it not he only for whose sake only Salvation is promised to Believers Doth not this Faith only in the Person of the Son of God make us partakers of the promise Doth not this Faith only justifie before God Moreover is not this the only condition which every where the voice of Christ and the Apostles in the Gospel and the voice of the Prophets inculcate which the appointment of the Father especially requires that we should hear his beloved Son that we should receive Christ that we should believe in his Name that we should flie to him by Faith and betake our selves wholly to him that we should believe in him whom he hath sent whom the Father hath sealed that we should digest him inwardly in our minds that we should be ingrafted into him and should grow in him that we should know Iesus and him crucified only that we should behold him only as the Israelites of old beheld the Serpent in the Wilderness that we should put on Christ. Hence come these so frequently repeated Sermons in the Gospel concerning the Person of Christ He that believeth in me hath Life Eternal As many as received him They that believe in his Name He that believes in the Son of God That every one that seeth the Son and believes in him He that believeth in me shall never Die Do ye believe in God Believe also in in me We believe and know that thou art Christ the Son of the living God He that believes in him who justifies the Ungodly Iustifying him that is of the faith of Iesus Christ. If thou confess with thy Mouth the Lord Iesus c. That we may believe that 〈◊〉 is the Son of God and believing may have Eternal Life If thou believe with all thy Heart c. Believe in the Lord Iesus and thou shalt be saved and thy House The Righteousness which is of the Faith of Christ. We have access through the faith of him The promise of the faith of Iesus Christ. By faith which is in me By his Name all that believe in him If ye do not believe that I am he Except ye eat my flesh Except ye abide in me If ye abide in me Ibid. Ye are all the Sons of God by Faith in Iesus Christ. What is the True and Genuine Definition of Faith BY Which so many and so evident places of Scriptute there is no Man that cannot be most sure what is properly the Object of that Faith which justifies us To wit no other thing but the person of the Son of God As again the object of Confidence is the promise of God Which things being so it will not be difficult to gather from these Notions of Scripture what is the true and genuine definition of justifying Faith concerning which we are making enquiry which seems that it ought to be defined according to the right rule of the Gospel after this manner To wit That it is a right knowledge of the Son of God planted in our minds whereby we acknowledge a promised Christ and receive him being held forth and with our Mouth profess him to have dyed for us and rose again Worship him in Spirit and embrace him with all our mind together with all his benefits And this Faith as it is a singular gift of God so of all the gifts of God we believe this faith is that only which justifies believers in the sight of God To which though assurance and confidence of the grace of God is most nearly joyned which is it self also sometimes called by the name of Faith yet this confidence doth not properly infer the cause of Iustification but receives it being brought neither doth it cause Iustification but is rather caused by it and renders those assured who are justified by the Faith of Christ but doth not it self justifie For God doth not therefore forgive thee and receive thee for a Son because thou embracest the Mercy of God with a Holy confidence but because thou embracest his Christ with a right Faith and confessest and lovest him he loveth thee neither do we therefore believe in Christ because we are assured of Salvation and trust the promises but because we believe in Christ therefore we attain unto a certain hope of those things that are promised in Christ for Eternal Life is promised to him that believes in the Son And from hence arises that clear Distinction between Faith and Assurance for they differ in Subjects and Objects The Faith of Christ which brings forth Righteousness takes its place in the higher part of the Soul wherein the understanding is Assurance hath relation to those powers of the Soul in which hope and the like affections are placed As touching the Objects Assurance hath respect to the Mercy or the promise in Christ faith is directed to Christ himself because he obtains Mercy for Believers But perhaps too much hath been said of those things which being clear enough of themselves would not at this time need any Explication unless I were forced thereunto by the Calumnies of Hosius Osorius and such Others whose Opinion seems to me to be faulty upon a Twofold account First in that they think this Doctrine of Christian Assurance which we Establish in Christ should by no means be endured in the Church and which they call Confidence and Presumption than which they affirm that nothing is more hurtful and pernicious to the Salvation of the Godly Hosius adds his own Iudgment that to him no Abomination as he expresses himself seems greater in the sight of God than this so great presumption of the Hereticks Neither wants he here his Authorities wrested from the Scriptures What saith he doth not the command of the Gospel teach us to confess our selves to be unprofitable Servants in all respects yea when we have performed all that God commanded us From whence Hosius presently gathers that he who assures himself that he is in a State of Grace he doth as much as if contrary to the command of the Lord he called himself a profitable Servant O Wise Headpiece
As if this Assurance and full Perswasion which we maintain did rely on any Dignity of ours and did not wholly depend upon the certainty of the promise of God I come to their other Calumny no less absurd whereby they most unjustly slander us as if we referred the whole cause of our Iustification to nothing else but only an opinionative assurance so that to obtain the Remission of sins we taught that no other thing is necessary but that every Man should by a special faith be perswaded in his own mind that his sins are forgiven him which is most false as there is almost nothing true in the Books of Hosius For though we confess this to be most sure that nothing is more sure than our Iustification by Christ yet if the cause be enquired for which properly justifies us from our sins we answer It is faith not whereby we believe that we are Iustified as Hosius chatters but whereby we believe in Christ the Son of God who only is a propitiation for our sin Concerning the Word Iustification what it signifies in the Scriptures Whether it consists of Remission of Sins only or not And by what ways and means Iustification is obtained NOW ye Papists ye have our Opinion of Iustifying Faith and the true Nature thereof explained unto you what its power is and what its object Moreover ye understand how this Faith is distinguished from Hope and Assurance And wherein the true and next cause of Iustification is taken up whereof if ye enquire for the Internal cause it is faith only whereby we belleve in Christ If ye enquire for the External Matter thereof it is Christ only whom we embrace by Faith But because ye do by no means allow thereof that we should be Iustified by Faith only that we may confute your Calumnies in this matter or amend your errour I see there remain two things to be unfolded by me and to be considered by you First What the Scripture properly understands by the word Iustification And then Who and what manner of persons they are who are Iustified by Faith As touching Iustification they of Trent deny that it consists only in the Remission of sins unless there is joyned therewith a voluntary receiving of grace and some other things go before by which as preparatories Men are disposed to receive Iustification But Pious Reader If you have not yet heard what this Preparatory Disposition is and by what degrees it arises and into what order it is digested by these Men it is worth while to take notice of it For Men are disposed unto Righteousness whilst being helped by the preventing grace of Divine Vocation without any Merits of Works going before they receive Faith by hearing Now what this Faith is it hath been shewed above for according to the opinion of the Papists it is a firm assent unto those things that are revealed and discovered by God And yet they plead that a Man is not presently Iustified by this naked assent or faith But it behoves that other Dispositions be added by Divine grace whereby men are prepared for Iustification Faith Fear Hope Love Repentance Hatred and Detestation of Sin Love of Righteousness Prayer and the like so that indeed the beginning of Iustification is the free calling of God Whence Faith comes by hearing Whereby Men believe those things to be true that are revealed by God Whether they be such things as belong to the free mercy of God towards sinners through the Redemption which is in Christ Iesus Or whether they be such things as belong to the fear of Divine Iustice from which Faith by consideration of the Divine Iudgment fear ariseth whereby Men are terrified to their advantage that they may forsake and detest their sins And afterwards from the same faith through consideration of free Mercy purchased fo penitent sinners by Christ assurance proceeds whereby they are perswaded that God will be gracious to them for Christ's sake And thus by this consideration of so great goodness they begin to call upon God as the Fountain of all Righteousness and to love him and to cast away sin and to endeavour after newness of life and to keep the Commandments And by this means we obtain a perfect disposition or preparation to Righteousness whereby we are commanded to prepare our Hearts to the Lord. And afterwards Iustification follows this preparation which is not only the Remission of sins but also Sanctification and Renovation of the inner Man by a voluntary accepting of grace and gifts whence a Man of unjust is made just and of an Enemy a Friend that he may be an Heir according to the hope of Eternal Life c. But now from what part of the Apostolick or Prophetick Scripture have they taken this Doctrine From none neither is there need of any The Tridentine Oracle is sufficient for Scripture Amongst the Doctors Canisius endeavours a valiant defence of this Decree but he gains nothing at all For tho' we acknowledge with Augustin and the Doctors that which cannot be deny'd that we are Debtors to the grace of God for all we receive both for those things which belong to the forgiveness of sins and also those things which belong to new Obedience Yet what makes this for the matter we are now treating of For the Subject matter at present is not what the efficacious power of Divine grace performs in us without which Augustin justly pleads against the Pelagians that all our strength is wholly ineffectual but what that is which justifies a wicked Man before God What that 〈◊〉 wherein this our Iustification whereof I speak consists in the Remission of sins only or in the possession of Vertues Moreover what that is which is properly signified in the Scriptures by the word Iustification Though in this also the Adversaries are not very well agreed with one another but in this one thing they are wonderfully agreed to oppose Saint Paul with all their might First they of Trent as I have said do thus divide their opinion that they make two parts of Iustification The one in Remission which they attribute to Faith The other in new Obedience and Works meritorious of increase as they speak by which the Righteouness of Faith is perfected of which opinion Tilet an is the Author Again there are Others who are so far from explaining what is signified by the word Iustification that referring all to the Righteousness of Works they think that Iustification is not worthy to be mentioned in Books Of whom and the chief amongst many is this Osorius of ours Thomas Aquinas discoursing of many things about Iustification as also about many other things seems to have described it after this manner To wit according to the nature of Motion which is made in Man from one contrary to another So that it is a kind of Transmutation from a State of unrighteousness to a State of Righteousness And he explains the
you may say That is true indeed and therefore this proves that Faith only doth not justifie I answer and also request the Adversaries that laying aside the desire of vain jangling they would examine the matter according to Scripture and right Reason Though the manifest Testimony of the Apostle Paul and the Examples of the Saints make it an undoubted Truth that only Faith in Christ the Son of God hath the power of justifying without Works Yet it cannot open this power upon all but only those in whom a fitness is found for receiving the displayings of Divine Grace Of the Repentance of those that are Iustified by Faith BUT None are found more fit than those that seem to themselves most unworthy and none less fit than those that are most highly conceited of their own worthiness Seeing we are all Sinners by Nature nothing can be more reasonable than that we should acknowledge the filthiness of our own abominations and cast our selves down at the Feet of Almighty God And there is nothing that God more requires than this Whose Nature or rather Mercy is such that he delights not in any thing more than in a humble Heart and a broken Spirit as the Psalmist declares He saveth such as are of a contrite Spirit And in the Prophet Isaiah God testifies of himself that he is the high and lofty one that inhabiteth Eternity and dwells in the high and Holy place and also with him that is humble and of a contrite Spirit to comfort the humble Spirit and to revive the Heart of the contrite ones And for that cause he calls aloud in the Gospel and offers his kind invitations chiefly to such as labour and are heavy laden that they may come unto him and be eased What is coming to Christ but believing What is it to be eased or refreshed but to be justified Though indeed he calls all and despises none that come to him Yet so it comes to pass for the most part that none come to Christ as they ought unless they be pressed and burdened under the sense of their Sin and Misery And again that Heavenly Physician is seldom sent unto any others but such As the Prophet bears witness who making a particular description of those to whom Christ was to be sent he sets before us the meek the broken in Heart the Captives the Prisoners the Mourners in Sion them that are walking in Darkness and sitting in the shadow of Death c. And the Psalmist speaks much to the same purpose Ps. 107. describing the Mercy of God on this manner He filleth the hungry Soul with goodness and such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of Death being bound in Affliction and Iron Though he being sent by the Father is given to all yet he is not entertained by all with the like Affection The Lord himself shews the cause thereof For what need have the whole of the Physician Therefore as a skilful Physician doth not Administer his Medicines but when sickness requires it so Faith cleanses none but those whom Repentance also amends neither doth the Gospel heal any but those whom first the Law hath slain and Conscience hath wounded And as that is most true which we Preach by the Authority of Paul the Apostle that Men are justified by Faith only without Works so on the other side it is false which the adversaries assert that by this Doctrine of Faith it comes to pass that all care of good Works is cast off and the reins are let loose to all manner of wickedness Howbeit if they speak of such impenitent persons as go on resolutely in their Sins we acknowledge that such as they are not justified by Faith and yet we assert that this is no way prejudicial to the cause that we plead But if they speak of such as join Repentance with Evangelical Faith and therefore stand in need of consolation if they deny that those are justified by the Faith of Christ only they discover themselves to be utter Enemies of the Gospel and adversaries to Christ. And again if they assert that such penitent believers become worse by this Doctrine they do therein err exceedingly and lye abominably Wherefore that the Mouth of Malice and Slander may be stopped I admonish these professours of Divinity who condem 〈◊〉 this Doctrine of Paul as Heretical that they would take our proposition not by halves but whole and join the legitimate predicate of the proposition with the subject that when Faith is said to justifie they should reckon that is not enough unless they understand aright whom this Faith justifies To wit none of those that continue stubborn and impenitent in their wicked courses but only such as acknowledge their Sins with grief of Heart and being weary of their former abominations fly to Christ by Faith for resuge But here they take another occasion to cavil 〈◊〉 For if Faith justifies none but them that repent then as they say Faith only doth not justifie but together with Faith a Godly Sorrow and Mourning for Sin Iustifie also I Answer It is true indeed that Faith is joyned with Repentance in him that is justified from his Sins And yet Repentance is no cause of Iustification As those that are afficted with a painful Disease Their pain makes them desirous of a cure but yet there is no healing vertue in this desire So Faith and Conversion are joyntly united in the person that is justified But as touching the cause of Iustifying Repentance indeed prepares a Soul for the reception of Iustification but the cause of justifying lyes altogether in Faith and not at all in Repentance For the just Iudge doth not absolve him who hath violated his Iustice because he is grieved upon that account but because he believes in Christ who hath satisfied Iustice and for whose sake Pardon is promised to such as Repent for in him are all the springs of our Iustification But lest this Discourse should grow too Ample for if every thing were treated of particularly it might be enlarged beyond all bounds Let us come close to the Adversary and Fight Hand to Hand that in a Summary Representation it may the more easily appear to the Reader with what Arguments they defend themselves what Arguments they defend themselves what Scriptures they quote what force and what fallacy is in their Arguments THE Third Book A Confutation of the Arguments Whereby the Adversaries defend their Inherent Righteousness against the Righteousness of Faith An Argument taken out of St. Iames. No Dead thing Iustifies All Faith without Works is Dead Therefore No Faith Iustifies without Works Answer First the manner of arguing is captious and transgresses the right Laws of Logick For the terms therein exceed the due number For there is a redundancy in the conclusion by this addition without Works For this should have been the conclusion Therefore no Faith that is without Works justifies And that may be well granted
without any disadvantage to our Cause For suppose we grant that Faith is Dead which is not moved with a desire of doing good Works according to the saying of St. Iames yet it doth not therefore follow from hence that no Faith Iustifies without Works From which two things do follow worthy of consideration First That no Faith justifies that is not lively And next though it abounds in good Works and never is without them yet it only without Works Iustifies This will appear evident by the Example of St. Paul Who though he was not conscious to himself of any Wickedness yet he durst not affirm himself to be thereby Iustified I think nothing hinders but the whole Argument may be yielded unto if so be the terms are rightly placed The Adversaries gather out of the Apostle Iames that Faith is dead which is without Works and herein we do not much oppose them But what follows from hence Therefore as they say dead Faith without Works doth not justifie And I deny it not But what Conclusion flows from this manner of Arguing Therefore only Faith doth not justiste Why so If no Faith but that which is lively justifies and if it receives Life only from Works then this is the consequence that Faith justifies only upon the account of good Works I Answer First though we grant it is true that the Faith which justifies us in the sight of God is lively and always joyned with a Godly Life Yet that this Faith justifies and reconciles us no other ways but upon the account of good Works is most false For this is not a good consequence from the premises Because Faith is not alone in the Life of the Believer therefore Faith is not alone in the Office of justifying Or because the Faith that justifies is not a dead but a lively Faith therefore it doth not justifie alone without Works For herein is a fallacy of the Consequence But you may object Whence then is Faith said to be lively and not Dead but from Works Which if it be so of necessity it must draw all its Life and Vertue from Works Nay the matter is quite contrary For though in the sight of Men Faith is not discerned to be Lively and Vigorous but by Works yet Faith receives not Life from Works but rather Works from Faith As Fruits draw their Life and Sap from the Root of the Tree but not the Root from them Iust so external actions proceed from Faith as the Root which if they be good they evidence the Root to be sound and lively and this is all they do but they communicate no Life thereunto And this Life and Vertue of Faith is not one but Twofold And it acteth partly in Heaven and partly in Earth If you ask what it doth amongst Men upon Earth It does good to its Neighbour working by Love But before God in Heaven it justifies the Ungodly not by Love but by the Son of God whom it only lays hold of Therefore those Men seem not to have got a clear insight into the Vertue and Nature of the Grace of Faith that suppose the whole Life thereof to consist in Love as if Faith of it self could do nothing but as it receives Vertue and Efficacy from Charity Indeed both may seem to be true in the External Actions of Human Life in which Faith lyes like a dead thing unless it be enlivened by Charity to the exercise of good Works And hereunto belongs that saying of Paul whereby he so much commends Faith working by Love understanding such Works as Faith working by Love brings forth to the view of a Human Eye Yet with God Faith hath a far different operation for it only without any reliance upon Works or assistance of Charity but trusting to the naked promise of God and the dignity of the Mediatour climbs up to Heaven and gets access into the presence of God where it does great and wonderful things combating with the Iudgment to come fighting against the terrours of Death Satan and Hell pleads the cause of a Sinner obtains his pardon absolves and justifies him from the accusations of a guilty Conscience takes away all Iniquity reconciles God to the Sinner appeases his wrath subdues the power of Death and the Devil and procures Peace yea and Paradise it self with theThief that had led a wicked Life and yet at Death was justified by Faith in the Redeemer Who would desire more or greater things And now so many and great things being done by Faith let us enquire After what manner it does them Not as it lives and works by Love but as it lives only by Christ and relies on the promise for the Life of Faith which lives before God is not Charity but Christ not receiving Life from Charity but communicating life unto it and justifying Works that they may be acceptable to God which would otherways be abominable Unto the truth of this we have a sufficient Testimony given us by Paul When he says my Life is Christ and again the Life that I now live in the Flesh I live not by the Love but by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me And elsewhere speaking of himself he says That he was not conscious to himself of any VVickedness and yet he denies that he is thereby Iustified as the same Apostle discoursing about the works of Abraham though they were never so Eminent for Holiness yet he saw nothing in them which that Great Patriarch might make a matter of Glorying before God Hereunto may be added the Arguments of others that have been strangely wrested out of Scriptures There are six Reasons principally which they pretend the Evangelists furnish them with against the Righteousness of Faith First they draw an Argument from these words of Christ Come ye blessed of my Father to the Kingdom prepared for you For I was an hungred and ye gave me Meat Argument Da. That which is the cause of blessedness is also the cause of Iustification Whom he hath Iustified them he hath also Glorified c. Rom. 8. Ri. Works of Mercy are the cause of blessedness for I was an hungred and ye gave c. Mat. 25. I. Therefore Works of Mercy are the cause of Iustification Answer I deny the Minor For Works of Mercy as they are considered in themselves are not the cause of Iustification or blessedness but rather effects and furits of Iustification for they are no otherways pleasing to God but as they are performed by persons in a justified state and it is by the Faith of Christ that they become acceptable For unless Faith go before and justifie the person of him that worketh his works are not at all regarded by God because they do not satisfie the Law of God being tainted with the corruption of depraved Nature and come far short of that perfection which Divine Iustice requires Wherefore if we will Reason aright about
whole Wherefore there can be no surer demonstration that Faith only justifies than is held forth in these very words of the Sacrament whereby the flesh and blood of Christ is represented in that holy Banquet under the similitude of Bread and Wine Another Argument Unless your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Therefore not Faith only but also Works of Righteousness exalt us to the Kingdom of Heaven I answer By these words the Lord gives us serious Instruction what manner of lives they ought to live that are justified But he doth not thereby signifie what is the proper cause of Iustification one Iudgment should be made of the causes of things and another of their effects If you enquire for the cause of Iustification the Lord hath resolved that doubt Thy Faith hath saved thee This is Life eternal that they should know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent In like manner Paul expressed himself If thou confess the Lord Iesus with thy mouth and believe with thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved But if you enquire what manner of lives they ought to live that make sincere profession of the Faith of Christ we are taught in this place and many other sayings of Scripture that they ought to differ much from the lives of the Scribes and Pharisees to wit that they who are created in Christ Iesus should behave themselves without a Pharisaical Vizard of external Holiness or a proud conceitedness of their own Righteousness but that they should be adorned and beautified with sincerity and uprightness of mind and persevere in the practice of good Works which God hath prepared that we should walk in them he said not that we should be justified by them but that being justified by his Grace we should walk in them bringing forth fruits worthy of our Vocation Another Argument Every Tree that bears not good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire Luke 3. Therefore Faith only is not sufficient to Salvation without Repentance I acknowledge the Divine Authority of that Prophecy which is true as it is generally known to all that have heard of the Gospel For who would endure an Unfruitful Tree that cumbers the ground and beares either no Fruit at all or such as is hurtful to the Husbandman But suppose it brings forth good Fruit and beautiful to look upon I would ask them whether the abundance of Fruit be the cause or whether it is not rather the demonstration of the Tree's Fruitfulness and whether the Fruits do not rather receive their growth from the Root whence they come Therefore if Repentance is reckoned amongst Fruits it doth not make the Man in whom it receives its first beginning perfect and good but only evidences what manner of Man he is now and hath formerly been For unless a wicked Life had gone before no Repentance had followed after Moreover Repentance could do no good unless Faith be joyned therewith by which a broken hearted Sinner may get access to the Throne of Grace But you may say Are not grief and remorse for Evil deeds and resolutions to the contrary things very acceptable to God and are not only conducible to the amendment of former miscarriages but also a great cause of future Reformation I Answer The sorrow of an afflicted Conscience which we call Repentance is a lovely effect but it proceeds from an Evil cause yet I deny not that it is a very excellent thing and never too late but always acceptable to God if so be it is accompanied with Faith in Christ. Neither do I deny that by means thereof Men are deterred from their customary Evil courses and stirred up to the exercise of Vertue Which though we grant to be true what doth all this avail towards the justifying of a sinner from those Sins that he hath formerly committed If a Man hath transgressed the Laws of the Commonwealth and being arraigned before a Iudge is forced to give account of all the actions of his Life will it be enough for him to say I was in an errour or I repent of my fault Will fear of judgment or shame set a Man free from the condemnation due to sin unless the Righteousness of a bleeding Saviour apprehended by faith do interpose and ward off the stroke of Divine vengeance from the guilty Sinner Without shedding of Blood saith the Apostle there is no remission Now then if neither Holiness of Life nor Prayers nor Tears nor the Blood of all the Saints can avail any thing towards the mitigation of the bitterness of this Iudgment and the only remedy be the death of the only begotten Son of God what will your Repentance do in this case Indeed I acknowledge that the Scripture attributes much to Repentance and there are glorious promises annexed thereunto but two things must be considered here First Of how large an extent the Promises are and next to whom they do belong for there are some rewards given in this Life and others that are reserved for Life Eternal Verily Eternal Life which is the benefit of Redemption as it could not be purchased by any works of ours so likewise it is not promised as the reward of Repentance or if in any Scripture it seems to be so promised it is not simply upon the account of Repentance but for another cause To wit the faith of the worker and not the work it self Therefore these things should be put each of them in their own places and comprehended within their own bounds That it may be understood aright what Faith does and what Repentance and what efficacy is in both and how they are distinguished from one another and also how they being joyned together do contribute mutual assistance to one another in the Iustification of the Ungodly For though we deny not that both are very pleasing to God yet the one is acceptable to him one way and the other another way For faith is acceptable through Christ but Repentance only upon the account of Faith And it is also a certain truth that though by faith only as the procuring cause we obtain Iustification in the sight of God Yet this very faith doth not put forth its power of Iustifying upon any but penitent and broken-hearted Sinners and therefore in the Gospel we are so often invited to Repentance Not that it is not true faith only which justifies without Repentance but because faith if it be true justifies no others but them that have turned from their Sins in sincerity and are converted unto God by Repentance For such as have no trouble of Conscience nor sorrow for Sin but run on obstinately against their Conscience and continue in their Evil courses it is a vain thing for them to hope for Iustification by Faith whereof they falsely boast for all such stout-hearted Sinners
Works which ye intrude from having a share with Faith in justifying a Sinner what hurt is it to sound Doctrine if the Word only is not expressed when you read such Scriptures as these being justified freely by his Grace Rom. 3. By the Works of the Law no Flesh shall be justified The Righteousness of God is manifested without the Law Rom. 3. a Man is not justified by the Works of the Law but by the Faith of Christ Gal. 3. Not of Works Rom. 11. Without Works Rom. 4. Not of Works Tit. 3. Not of Works Eph. 2. Not according to Works 2 Tim. 1. Without Works Rom. 9. What is the Signification of such Expressions but that all Works being excluded it should be understood that Faith only is the procuring cause of Iustification for what else is Faith without Works and without the Law but Faith only Therefore by the necessary Law of Consequence we may argue thus we are justified by Faith and are not justified by any other thing inherent in us according to the Scriptures Therefore we are justified by Faith only Or we may Confute the Adversaries with this Argument Argument That from which all other things are excluded must of necessity remain alone The Scripture excludes all other things in Man from Faith Therefore of Necessity it is Faith only that justifies But whereas they deny that this exclusive Word is found in the Scripture let them read Mark 5. and Luke 8. where the Lord says Only believe and thou shalt be saved I come now to the Greek and Latin Doctors of the Primitive Church Basilins Nazianzen Hilarius Ambrose Augustin Hierom Chrysostom Theophylact Oecumenius Photius Bernard to whom if you please you may add Thomas Aquin. who all Commenting on the same Words of Christ and Paul do not only agree with us in the same Opinion but also in the same exclusive Word as hath been evidently proved in our former Answer to Osorius Thought it be manifest that we assert nothing here which the Orthodox Divines of the Primitive Church have not confirmed unanimously and in the same Words yet nevertheless these things so evident in themselves do not satisfie those perverse Sophisters who when they cannot deny the very Words of learned Men yet they take occasion to contend with us about the Sense of the Words in which they pretend that we do greatly err for they have found out a curiously contrived Distinction Saying That by Faith only is understood the first Iustification but not the second Thus these cunning Artificers of Words have turned one Iustification into two one that is obtained by the first Grace as they call it before all Works as in Infants when they are Beptized And another which is in Persons come to Years by the practice of good Works That I may Answer this frivolous Distinction First I object this saying of Augustin good Works that follow him that is justified do not go before him that is to be justified which if it be true what remains but that they should either Confess that there is no such thing as this second Iustification which they have devised or else that good Works go before him that is to be justified contrary to the Doctrine of Augustin Moreover if they think there is sufficient cause why Faith only should not be admitted because it is not expresly mentioned in the Holy Scriptures why should not also this Distinction of theirs about a second Iustification by the practice of good Works be rejected upon the same account which is no where expressed in the sacred Oracles But by a manifest Contradiction is opposice to Heavenly Truth It is an Ancient and Famous Rule of Lawyers That there is no occasion of distinguishing where the Law makes no Distinction In what place of Scripture can those Sophisters find this Distinction between a first and second Iustification whereby Infants Baptized are otherways justified than they that are come to years for both were alike dead in their Sins and they are both alike regenerated and live by Faith in Christ the Son of God That we may briefly Consute this Sophistry whereas neither the Holy Scriptures nor the Godly Doctors of the Primitive Church ackonwledge any manner of justifying but one only How comes it to pass that those men have devised a twofold Iustification making two of that which is but one So that the first Iustification consists of Faith only and the second is made up of Works But it is easie to withstand this absurd device by the Authority of sufficient witnesses amongst whom Ambrose comes first into Mind who hath expressed himself thus Because there is one God of all he hath justified all after the same manner and what that manner is he shews in these Words He justifies them no otherways but as they are Believers And presently after he excludes all Merit of Works For nothing saith he is the cause of Dignity and Merit but Faith only And again Seeing that a Man is not justified before God but by Faith only c. Therefore let us inferr from these Words of Ambrose if there is one manner of justifying as there is one God Then no Distinction can make two Iustifications of that which is one only As no Distinction can make the one only God that justifies to be two Again if Believers are no otherways justified before God but by Faith according to the Testimony of Ambrose and there is no other Dignity nor Merit that God regards but only Faith what place is there for a second Iustification made up of the Merits of Works Hereunto let us add the Testimony of Gregory which is very seasonable to confute the Forgery of those vain Sophisters concerning their second Iustification These are the Author's Words Grace begot me being naked in the first Faith and the same Grace will save me being naked at my Reception Thus Gregory spake of Nakedness And what Nakedness is that but the want of Vertue and good Works as he himself Interprets which is the Condition of every gracious Soul not only of Men come to Years but also of Infants when they are Baptized in their first Regeneration If we are found Naked in our Reception into Glory where then is that second Iustification made up of good Works but if it is not so where is that Nakedness whereof Gregory speaks How can these things so much disagreeing consist together that we should both be Naked and void of good Works and also cloathed with good Works and thereby Merit a second Iustification In the mean while this should not be omitted which the same Gregory mentions of Grace which he divides not into a first and second as the Papists do now adays but he shews that it is one and the same Grace which both first regenerates us and also afterwards receives us into the Kingdom of Glory By which it is evident that there is but one manner of justifying which
of the Works of Christ were not they Works of the Law For he himself hath said that he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it were not the things which he performed in fulfilling the Law VVorks of Grace VVhat difference then is there between those VVorks that are called VVorks of the Law and those other that are called VVorks of Grace So that it appears that he who excludes the VVorks of the Law excludes also the VVorks of Grace from Iustification Though I acknowledge there is great difference between the Law and Grace in respect of the manner of Doing and the ends of their Offices For what the Law exacts that Grace performs but in respect of the things themselves and the Actions unto which they are directed seeing both the Law and the Grace of God are exercised in the same subject Matter there is no difference between them The Law commands us to Love our Neighbour and lays a Punishment on him that disobeys But Grace communicates Strength and Ability to perform what the Law commands VVhich when we perform we are said to do not only a VVork of Grace but also a VVork of the Law by Grace so that it is a matter of small concernment whether it be called a VVork of the Law or a VVork of Grace a VVork of our own or a VVork of Faith Therefore if the Scripture denies That a man is justified and attributes his Iustification to another cause that is Faith what should be inferr'd from hence but that Man's Iustification comes neither by the VVorks of the Law nor the VVorks of Grace Iust as if a Man writing to his Friend should say thus This Benefit was procured for him by no Money or charge of his own VVhat matter is it whether it was his own Money or borrowed of some other Man when the meaning of the VVriter was to signifie that this Benefit whatsoever it was was not bought by any Price of the Receiver but obtained by the free Bounty of the Giver So Paul desiring to set before the Eyes of all Men the boundless Immensity of Divine Grace toward Mankind that they might behold and embrace it expresly denies that Man is justified by the VVorks of the Law But here the Distinction of Hosius as I have said presents it self It is true saith he in respect of the Works that are of the Law and belong to our own Free-will which being attended with Imperfection can avail nothing to Iustification To which I Answer in a Word Give then that Grace which may furnish frail Nature with Strength to yield perfect Obedience to the Law and may restore us to perfect innocency in this Life and you have won the cause But in the mean while let those Disputants consider how many gross and pernicious Absurdities proceed from this kind of Doctrine for hereby the infinite greatness of the free Grace and Mercy of God towards us is taken away and abolished this also destroys our thankfulness to him for his goodness and withholds Consolation from afflicted Consciences so that very great injury is done to him that hath freely communicated so many and so great Benefits and much greater injury is done to those on whom they are bestowed Hereby also it comes to pass that there remains no Assurance in the Promise of God no firmness in our Faith no soundness in the Doctrine of Religion nor Comfort or Refreshment in the Suffering of the Saints A second Argument out of St. Paul Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption which is in Christ Iesus whom he hath set forth to be a Propitiation by Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness at this time that he may be Iust and the Iustifier of him that is of the Faith of Iesus Christ and again we reckon that a Man is justified by Faith without Works Unless the Hearts of these our Adversaries were fully set in them to pervert the ways of the Lord it could not otherways be but these clear and evident sayings of the Apostle must be sufficient to satisfie them and prevail upon them to beware lest they kick against the Doctrine of the Apostles and exalt themselves in their proud Imaginations and vain Conceit of their own Righteousness against such clear Manifestation of Divine Grace But here the Roman Legions make a fresh incursion again and the Ring-leader of them is Andraeas Vega who fights against the Righteousness of Faith Whom there is no need of answering in this World For he hath been removed out of this Life a great while since that he might answer to God his Iudge And because he denied that he was justified by the Faith of Christ only let him look to it what he must answer his Iudge in that Iudgment wherein he must give account of his whole Life where of necessity he must either overcome or fall If he overcome where is the Truth of Scripture in which it is said God only overcomes when he is judged But if he fall where then is the Righteousness of Works What if David so great a King and Prophet could not endure that God should enter with him into Iudgment If Iob a Man of so Holy a Life yet durst not answer to one of a thousand What will our Vega say what will he bring his Cowls his Fastings his lyings on the Ground his Night Watches his Vows his Liturgick-Prayers his Propitiatory-Masses his Mumbled over Confessions his Penances and Satisfactions But who hath required these things at your Hands Nay but he will defend himself and take Sanctuary in the Law which he hath fulfilled not by the Strength of his own Free-will but by the help of Divine Grace Say you so David being guarded with as much Grace as any Man was yet sunk down under the weight of the Law of God I suppose Iob wanted not Divine Grace and yet he dares not appear before God in Iudgment And will Vega nevertheless hope to bring such an account of his Life before the Tribunal of God that if God strictly Mark it and weigh it in the balance of his Iustice he will not find more Sins than Merits therein But I need not ask him what he will answer to God his Iudge To whom I know he can make no satisfaction with all his inherent Righteousness But this is that which I ask him and not him only but all the other Tridentines also what they will answer the Apostle Paul who openly pronounces a Curse both on Men and Angels if any of them should dare to preach any other Gospel than he had preached And what Gospel is it that we have received by the preaching of Paul Is it not the same that he taught so often in all his Epistles with frequent Repetitions and great Care and Diligence and also confirmed it with Miracles Now the summ of the Gospel which he preached is this That Man is justified freely without Works by the Grace of
any human industry or strength of our Nature nor any precedent obedience to the Law or works and merits of our own but only by Faith in the merits of Christ. Therefore Paul says well That we are justified by faith without works speaking of such works as belong to nature but not to grace which are a man 's own works and not God's and are called the works of the Law not of Faith But by the works of the Law the Apostle understands such works as are performed by a man 's own free will or by the direction of the Law and Nature only without the assistance of Grace And this is the meaning of Paul as those Popish Doctors would have it when he distinguishes between Iustification by Works and Iustification by Grace or Faith So that if it be by grace then it is not of works to wit such works as are done by Nature and not by Grace but if it is of works then it is not of grace for then grace saith he would not be grace which opposition must be thus understood according to the Opinion of those Popish Teachers so that grace doth not wholly overthrow all works but those only that are performed by the strength of Nature without the assistance of Grace But contrarily the pious works which proceed from Grace and Faith their Righteousness is so far from being made void by Grace or the Righteousness of Faith that it is rather thereby confirmed For the Law as Augustin speaks is not made void by Faith but rather established for Faith obtains the Grace whereby the Law is fulfilled Therefore whereas Paul distinguishes between the Righteousness of Works and the Righteousness of Faith This is the Answer the Catholick Faction gives to this distinction In this place the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of Faith are not set in opposition one against another as they express themselves but Righteousness by the Law or in the Law is that which is opposed to the Righteousness of Faith And they say The Righteousness that is in the Law or by the Law is that obedience which is performed to the Law by natural strength without the assistance of Grace For these things differ not a little from one another for the Righteousness of the Law is one thing and the Righteousness by the Law or in the Law is another thing From which distinction they draw this Inference That the Righteousness of Faith or by Faith doth not exclude the Righteousness of the Law but is exercised about it and fulfils it In as much as the Law signifies Obedience to the Commandments which faith by obtaining grace performs And because the Grace of God performs the Law that is the certain cause why the works of the Law which are the gifts of God ought not to be excluded from Iustification just as Faith it self cannot be excluded because it is the gift of God as much as the Works of the Law and Charity which are infused by the Grace of God This is the entangling Sophistry whereby Andraeas Vega and others of his Association persuade themselves that they can break through the force of all the former Arguments An Answer to the Adversaries wherein their Frivolous Exceptions and Sophistical Subtilties are confuted BUT these Sophistical Distinctions which they make use of as antidotes in difficult cases are so absurd and unreasonable that there is not any Poison more deadly and injurious to the Doctrine of Salvation And I greatly wonder at the power and efficacy of Errour that so stupifies their undestanding that in the light of Noon-day they can be so blind and err so perniciously and betray their own Ignorance so shamelesly It is a Rule of Lawyers as I formerly have said Where the Law distinguishes not we ought not to distinguish What need then is there in a thing so evident of so many by-ways of distinctions and Labyrinths of perplexities for Paul hath spoken expresly and given many weighty Arguments whereby he makes it very clear that it is theGrace ofGod only to which we are indebted for all our Iustification But those men are of another mind saying That this Grace consists not in the favour of God only whereby he receives sinners for the sake of Christ but also in Moral Vertues and Charity whereby the Law is fulfilled Tho' I deny not that the excellent gifts of honest actions are bestowed upon us by the Grace of God Yet our Iustification before God depends not upon this grace of working Therefore we do not utterly reject the distinction that they bring of pardoning and renewing grace if they keep them duly within their own bounds But that which they conclude from hence we altogether disapprove I know and confess it is the Grace of God which both sanctifies and justifies which both pardons renews For we are daily renewed unto new obedience by the influence of Divine Grace But though this be so we are not renewed for this purpose that by this newness of obedience we may be justified But before Renovation we are sirst justified by Faith in the Son of God all the sins of our former life being blotted out for the sake of Christ in whom we believe Unto which Iustification succeeds the renovation of imperfect Obedience but not such as justifies a man from his sins in the sight of God for good works go not before him that is to be justified but follow him that is justified For whereas hence they make a twofold Iustification a first as they call it and a second of which the one is before works and the other after works whereby it is perfected it is a vain imagination not derived from the fountains of sound Doctrine but from the filthy Cisterns of Sophistry and vain jangling For the Gospel acknowledges no Iustification but one only and such a one as endures for ever As Christ whom he loves he is said to love unto the end And as God hath once chosen and called those unto Salvation whom he will justifie for ever so also he likewise once justifies those whom he will glorifie For I see no such difference between these things but that what agrees unto Election and Vocation may also be attributed to Iustification Wherefore as God's election and calling of those who are justified is one and not twofold it must follow by necessary consequence that there is but one Iustification of those who are chosen Therefore if God hath once chosen those that are to be justified why may not one Iustification be sufficient for them whom Election hath called unto glory especially because there is one and the same cause and manner both of electing and justifying He chose them in Christ first whom he predestinated unto life And in like manner he justifies in Christ those whom by the sacred Decree of his Election he appointed to glory But if you ask the cause why God chuses his own in Christ I answer That the cause
thereof is not placed in the works of men but it depends upon the free favour of God and the like we may say of Iustification for those whom he justifies he justifies in Christ but if you ask why doth he justifie in Christ the cause appears evident which cannot be found in our VVorks but before all VVorks in the favour of God only But you may say Those things are not well compared with one another which disagree in Nature for Election and Vocation and Glorification are such things as being once determined of God cannot be disannulled But the Case is otherways in Iustification which may sometimes be lost and sometimes retained according as it is hindered or not hindered by the Grace of God For thus spake Vega and Scotus and others That I may Answer such Men I confess indeed if the manner of our Iustification were such as those Men feign to wit if its chief reliance were upon Works and the increase of Vertues it would be true which they assert concerning the uncertainty of losing or keeping Iustification But seeing all the stability of our Iustification depends not at all upon our Works but upon the Merits of Christ by Faith and the Remission of Sins by his Righteousness therefore it is that as there is one Election and Vocation and that sure and firm so also Iustification is not twofold but one and the same and such an one as endures for ever I call it one because there remains always one and the same cause and manner of Iustifying which relies not on the Merits of Works but consists of Faith and the Remission of Sins And though the Sins from which we are justified are not all of the same kind but are distinguished by times and variety of Actions yet nevertheless Iustification that is the Remission of Sins in respect of the form and manner is not divers but one Not twofold but simple as Faith also which is the procuring cause of Iustification is not which though it is daily increased yet it remains always one and the same Moreover as this Iustification which increases together with Faith is only one so also the same being firm and stable no less than the Promise of God on which it relies undergoes no change but continues firm and constant and the cause thereof is because it relies not on Works but Faith only whence the Apostle said It is therefore by Faith that according to Grace the Promise may be sure to all the Seed On the contrary they who make a twofold Iustification and assign divers causes of both of which the one confists of Faith only without Works going before which they call the first and the other which they call the second is increased by Works of Grace as they speak I see not what they can find in the Scriptures for the defence of their Opinion for Paul writing to so many Churches acknowledges no cause of Iustification but one which he professes to be Faith in Christ and that without Works What need is there of better evidence Can you not be perswaded to believe the Truth which hath been so often and so perspicuously demonstrated by so great a Master as Paul But to what purpose hath Christ appointed him to be a Teacher to us Gentiles if we despise his Instructions and chuse to our selves other Masters that teach another Gospel And what else do those Men who reject the Apostle's Doctrine and hearken to such as teach contrary thereunto Paul says Without Works Man is justified Will you then dare to plead for Iustification by Works in Opposition to the Apostle Dare you deny what he affirms But you say I detract nothing from Works in opposition unto Paul but I add Grace from whence they receive the power of Meriting and Iustifying Then according to your Opinion Works being assisted by Grace do justifie but without Grace they avail nothing But what will you answer to St. Paul who without making any Distinction of Works says not of such or such Works only but indefinitely and in the general of all Works It is of Faith and not of Works lest any should boast And again to the Romans If by Grace then it is not of Works and elsewhere To him that worketh not c. And how often doth he in all his Epistles Attribute all Power of Iustifying to Faith shutting out not only such or such Works but all Works of what kind soever concerning which Paul speaking indefinitely and absolutely utterly excludes them from any concernment in Iustification Which would be false if any Works whether performed by Grace and in Faith or without Grace were conducible to Iustification And hence this Argument arises An Argument against inherent Righteousness We are justified without Works by Faith as Paul testifies VVorks of Charity infused by Grace are VVorks Therefore without these Works also that consist of Grace we are justified The Adversaries Answer to the Major Paul asserts that we are justified without Works but with this Exception unless they be planted in us by Faith and the influence of Grace for the Apostle excludes not such kind of Works because they please God and procure Iustification Contrarily those VVorks only are excluded that are of the Law or of Nature without which we are said to be justified But this Answer doth not satisfie the VVords of Paul who without making any such Exception or Distinction of VVorks teaches simply and indefinitely that we are justified without Works By what Logick then have these Sophisters learned to make a definite and particular Proposition of that which is Indefinite and Universal Or what Reason have they to confine that unto a particular Case which Paul speaks of Works in the general Let us consider the Words of the Apostle Who if he had believed that Works of Charity infused procure Iustification in the sight of God it cannot be doubted but he would have expresly said so much Now he says expresly without any Exception By Works shall no Flesh be justified Whence we may form this Argument If Works performed by Grace and in Faith were meritorious of Iustification then some flesh would be justified by Works seeing there are many Believers that Work by Grace But no flesh at all shall be justified by Works as Paul bears witness Therefore it is false that good Works performed by Grace have any Power of justifying Let us confirm the saying of Paul by Scriptural Examples That which Paul here preaches of free Salvation without Works the same Isaiah foretells will come to pass though in other Words yet to the same purpose under the Symbols of Wine and Milk All ye that thirst saith he come without Money and without Price and buy Wine and Milk What is signified here by Wine and Milk but the glorious Mystery of our Iustification and what is the signification of these Words wherein we are commanded to eat without Money and without Price but that
not how great Faith and Hope is but how true The difference between confidence hoping and Faith justifying Confidence or Hope looks properly at the promise Faith looks at the Person of the Redeemer Not every Faith Iuifies 〈◊〉 3. Sentent distinct 23. I believe a God I believe God I believe in God Hebr. 11. Andreas Vega Hisp. De Iust. q. 1. Nine Significations of Faith in Vega. It is no wonder if Faith as it is defined by the Papists does not Iustifie The definition of Faith in Osor. lib. 2. Numb 46. 〈◊〉 lib. 3. Dist. 23. What Faith is according to Osorius and the Papists Osor. lib. 1. pag. 7. Not every Faith apprehending true things justifies What manner of Faith is this which is 〈◊〉 Hebr. 11. Faith looks upon the promise but yet not upon this only but rather another object whence it receives Iustification Osor. lib. 6. Nu. 150. Lib. 5. Num. 21. A Question How the promise is free if it is confined by a condition Answer The Mediatour The Promise with a Condition Lombard For what 〈◊〉 Christ was given to us of the Father according to the Papists Trident. Concil 〈◊〉 6. c. 7. Andrad Orthod explic lib. 6. pag. 471. The order of causes according to the Papists in the manner of justifying The nextand last cause of Iustification is the perfection of the Law The cause of procuring grace is the Merit of Christ and the voluntary acceptance of free will Merit de congruo A Refutation of the Popish Division as touching the order of causes The condition of Iustification depends not on the perfection of the Law as the next and ultimate end Charity is in part as the Saints often teach Sentent lib. 3. dist 31. Charity does not go before Faith but follows after it neither doth it form Faith but it is informed by Faith In what respect the Meritorious cause of Iustification should be placed in Christ. Merits of congruo and condigno Merits of Superrogation that are undue ex opere oper ato Ephes. 2. Colos. 2. Charity infused into the holy Patriarchs and Prophets before the Death of Christ. Christ only is the meritorious cause of Iustification The promise of God unto Salvation relies upon one condition only Faith consists of two parts inward knowledge and outward confession The Object of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the 〈◊〉 Bonifacius in Decretals The Object of Faith according to the more sound Orthodox The definition of Falth according to the more reformed Divines Faith often taken for trust in mercy Whether only relyance on mercy properly justifies us before God Assurance of Salvation is necessatily joyned with Faith An Answer to the objection Mercy the first cause of our Iustification on God's part On our part are considered relyance on the Mercy promised and Faith in the Person of the Mediatour The Opinion of the Papists concerning the uncertainty of our Salvation in Christ exploded Hosius lib. 3. confut p. 140. An Answer against the Hosian uncertainty Hosius lib. 1. confut p. 15. Hosius ibid. Osor. de Iust. l. 2. p. 32. The cause of Iustification in respect of God is Mercy in respect of us Faith in the Mediatour Faith only in the person of the Son of God justifies Ioh. 6. Ioh. 1. Ioh. 3. Ioh. 6. Ioh. 11. Ioh. 14. Ioh. 6. Rom. 4. Rom. 3. Ioh. 20. Act. 8. Act. 16. Philip. 3. Ephes 3. Galat. 3. Act. 26. Act. 10. Ioh. 8. Ioh. 6. Ioh. 15. Galat. 3. The Object of Faith that justifies The Object of Faith which certifies The definition of faith whereby we are justified Perswasion of Mercy follows the faith of Christ in Order Wherein Iustifying faith and assurance do differ The Subject of Faith The Subject of Assurance A twofold Calumny of the Papists Hosius in confut lib. 1. pag. 14. What it is to be Iustified in the Scriptures Trident. Conc. cap. 7. Sess. 6. By what ways and means Men are prepared for Iustification Trident. Concil Sess. 6. cap. 6. Tiletanus in Apol. pag. 250. 241. Free Will cooperating Wher ein Iustification consists according to the Tridentines Tiletanus in Apol. pag. 237. 〈◊〉 12. q. 113. arti 1. What the Iustification of the wicked is according to Thomas A 〈◊〉 al motion in Iustification The Term to which The opinion of Thomas is examined Whether Iustification consists in Remission only or in change of qualities 2 Cor. 5. Hierom. cont Pelag. Dial. 1. Phil. 10. 23. Out of Alphonsus and the Tridentines The Pharisaical Righteousness of the Roman Catholicks Works not of the Law but of Grace No Man is Righteous 〈◊〉 by inherent Righteousness according to the Roman Divinity A twofold Errour of the Papists Formal Righteousness Iudicial Righteousness To justifie according to the Papises is nothing else but to make righteous Two parts of Iustification of which the first consists in remission the other in works of Faith Alphonsus in 〈◊〉 Christ. Relig. p. 456. The other part of Tridentine Iustification Aug. de perfect Iust. For that is not sin which is not imputed for sin ibid. Whosoever says that after the remission of sins received any man hath lived or doth live so righteously in the flesh or that he hath no sin contradicts the Apostle Iohn who says If we say we have no sin c. for he says not we had but we have For Inherent righteousness A twofold manner of keeping the Commands Psal. 39. August lib. Retract c. 19. Oecumenius in cap. 3. ad Rom. Oicumen ibid. Oicumen ibid. Out of the Roman Missal Isai. 5. 53. Dan. 9. Abraham and Sarah Genes cap. 17. Moses Aaron Psal. 143. peter Mat. 15. Paul Philip. 3. 〈◊〉 Tiletan in defence of the Council of Trent pt 1. Alphonsus in 〈◊〉 Cant. 3. Grace Charity Charity was given to renew us not to justifie us 2 Cor. 10. Ephes. 4. 1. Cor. 13. The Church of God in this life is never so perfect but that she hath need of the Mercy of God Ioh. 7. 1 Tim. 3. A Bishop must be 〈◊〉 the Husband of one Wife Vigilant Sober Modest given to Hospitality apt to teach no Drunkard not greedy of filthy Lucre but Meek not a 〈◊〉 not Covetous one that ruleth well his own House having his Children in subjection with all decency Not a Novice not puffed up having a good testimony of them which are without Hierom. ad Ctesiphon Dial. 1. Hierom. ad Ctesiphon Dial. 2. Precepts of Evangelical Righteousness Mark 9. Hierom. Mat. 19. Popes Cardinals Bishops Governors or the Church The Orders and Rules of Monks The strise about Primacy in Churches Psal. 31. Blessedness the highest degree of all good things Lorichius cap. 8. Of the Remission of Sins A Twofold kind of Sin Reigning Sin 1 Iohn 3. Sin not reigning Romans 8. The Saints themselvessin sometimes They that sin finally The Saints though they fall sometimes into sin they do not continue in sin 2 Cor. 12. 1 Iohn 3. A Fallacy from that which is said in a certain sense to that which is said simply
Nazianzen de moderatione Our Righteousness is Faith only Bernard our Righteousness is no other thing but the Indulgence of God Thom. Aquin. in 1 Tim. 1. Therefore there is no hope of Iustification but in Faith only A twofold Iustification 〈◊〉 to the Papists The second Iustification of Papisis overturned A Rule of Law Ambrose in Cap. 3. ad Rom. It is proved out of Ambrose that a twofold manner of Iustificatoin is impossible Gregor 2. lib. Moral Cap. 40. Gregor ibid. There is a twofold consideration both of good and Evil Works An Answer by way of Instance Every Union of things doth not confound their Offices Erasmus censurus Parisiensium Tit. 7. They of Paris argue that Faith can be without Charity 1 Cor. 13. Chrysostom A cavilling about the Word all An Argument out of a place of 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 13. Mat. 11. In the Kingdom of Heaven Faith is greater than Charity 1 Cor. 13. The Offices of Charity Charity commended from its duration How great things Faith doth in Heaven How Charity is greater than Faith and how Faith is greater than Charity Iustification before God Iustification before men What the Iustification is whereof Iames speaks Human Iustification which consists in the shewing of good works An outward appearance is often deceitful Gen. 15. Gal. 3. Romans 3. Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Reason Tiletan Free Iustification by Faith is proved by the Words of Paul Andr. Vega de just pag. 751. Rom. 4. The Distinction of the Papists is idle and Impertinent Rom. 1. Eph. 1. Colos. 2. Wherein the difference between the Law and Grace consists A Similitude The Distinction of Hosius 2. Arg. out of Paul Rom. 3. Andraeas Vega Isa. 1. Aug. de perfect just But when the highest Lord shall sit on the Throne who will boast that he hath a clean Heart And who will boast that he is pure from his Sin Unless it be those that Glory in their own Righteousness and not in the Mercy of the Iudge What manner of Gospel Paul preached Rom. 3. The popish comment about the universal Sign is overturned Aug. de praedest Sanct. lib. 1. cap. 8. Hab. No Man denies Works to be necessary Basil. in Psal. 32. Nazian 3 Argum. St. Paul Rom. 4. 4 Argum. Rom. 10. 5 Argum. Acts 13. 6 Argum. Acts 10. 7 Argum. 1 Cor. 3. 8 Argum. Arguments out of S. Paul Rom. 4. Rom. 10. Romans 4. Acts 13. 1 Cor. 3. An argument taken from Examples Acts 2. Acts 8. Acts 16. Luke 7. Luke 18. Luke 23. Luke 18. Inherent Righteousness Rom. 10. Gal. 3. Rom. 10. A Sophistical Pretence A Sophistical Objection How Grace justifies according to the Opinion of the Papists Works considered in a twofold respect as they are either of grace or of nature Aug. de spirttu litera cap. 30. What is righteousness by the Law The righteousness of the Law righteousness by the Law or in the Law A Rule of Lawyers Aug. de fid oper c. 15. The cause why we are chosen and justified in Christ only Vega de fide operibus q. 2. pa. 754. It is sufficient that we by believing only be justified unless we do otherways hinder the Grace of God by our Sins One manner of justifying and that perpetual The Distinction of a first and second Iustification is confuted The cause of Iustification is not twofold but one Eph. 2. Rom. 11. The Caviling of the Papists An indefinite Proposition Rom. 3. Isa. 55. A frivolous Trick of the Sophisters Isa. 52. The VVords of Paul wrested by the Papists Tarrianus Iesuit pro epist. pent lib. 4. An Answer to the first Objection An Answer to the Objection An Answer to the third Objection 1 Tim. 1. 1 Tim. 2. 2 Tim. 1. 2 Cor. 5. Ephes. 3. The blind Errour of the Papists about the sense and scope of Pauls Epistles Romans 7. Vega de Iustificat p. 771. Iohn 3. Romans 4. Aug. de Haeres Haeres 54. Iohn 6. Acts 10. Acts 16. Gal. 5. Tridentine Counc 1. Sess. 6. cap. 7. Objection from the words of Paul Answer Why Faith is alone in Iustifying How Faith Charity and other vertues are joyned together What where how Faith works by Love Trid. Concil cap. 11. If any say that a man is justified by the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness only or by the remission of sins only excluding Grace and Charity which is spread abroad in the hearts and inheres in them Or if any say that the Grace whereby we are justified is only the favour of God let him be accursed If any say that Iustifying Faith is nothing else but a fiducial relyance on the Mercy of God forgiving sins for Christ's sake or that this fiducial relyance is the only thing whereby we are justified let him be accursed Sess. 6. cap. 2. Rom. 4. 11. Rom. 3. Rom. 4. Testimonies out of the Prophets Ierem. 23. Ezek. 34. Isa. 41. Isa. 43. Isa. 44. Zeph. 2. The necessity of Pious Works Apoc. 3.
OF Free Iustification BY CHRIST Written First in Latine By Iohn Fox Author of the Book of Martyrs AGAINST OSORIUS c. And now Translated into English for the Benefit of those who love their own Souls and would not be mistaken in so great a point LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurstat at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside 1694. THE EPISTLE OF THE AUTHOR To all Afflicted and Troubled Consciences of Believers in Christ. BEing to write this Apology concerning Free Iustification by Christ the more that I consider the Cause that I have undertaken the more I am inclined to proceed And again when I call to mind these Times and how the Manners of Men are corrupted there arifeth in my mind a doubtful wavering distracting me several ways not without some fear joyned therewith That which causeth me to 〈◊〉 is this lest the greatest part of our People as the minds of Men are apt to catch at the smailest occasious Should contract Some 〈◊〉 from this mild and peaceable Doctrine of Evangelical Iustification to grow the more bold in Sinning From whence I do therefore partly apprehend what the Silent Thoughts of Some Men may object against me who though they will not deny the things which we say of Christ to be true yet they will judge them unseasonable for the Times and Manners of Men now-a-days being so corrupted and infected Nay that they are rather hurtful and open a door to greater boldness and security in sinning Therefore that I may answer those Men and give some account of my undertaking I thought sit to speak a few things by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That I am not at all ignorant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of prodigious Uncleanness do abound every where at this day and also 〈◊〉 do no less 〈◊〉 the things that I see And I wish it were as much in my power 〈◊〉 procure the healing of these Evils as I am 〈◊〉 grieved at so great a Torrent of all Wickedness prevailing daily more and more 〈◊〉 some will say Then dram forth and thunder out something from the severe Law of God which may terrifie the minds of the People with the healthful Fear of God and the dreadfulness of Divine Vengeance which maytake away the furious Lusts of Life and restrain unbridled Boldness and reduce Men into a course of more severe discipline and reclaim them from Wickedness to serious Repentance and drive all Men forward by all means to endeavour the best things But what other thing do I drive at in these Treatises throughout though not with the same dexterity of Speech and excellency of Wit as many Men yet aiming altogether at the same 〈◊〉 For if we look at the End of things with a right Iudgment what is the Design of all the Doctrine of the Sacred Gospel concerning Faith Christ the 〈◊〉 and Free Iustification by him but that by setting before Men the great 〈◊〉 bestowed upon us by Christ and by considering his Special Favour the winds of Believers being so much more easily inflamed with the admiration of heavenly things may be won over to a contempt of this World Though in the mean time I am not unsensible that there be some perhaps of a contrary Opinion to wit that no other way or Medicine for rooting out of Vices and reforming Manners should be used but to stupifie the Ears of simple Men with perpetual inculcating of Laws and Precepts and dreadful Threatnings to stir up Terrour Unto whose Opinion as I would not oppose my self so also I cannot but greatly commend their Labour But again neither should they be blamed who teach Christ nor the promulgation of the Gospel neglected because many abuse it Before the Father sent his son into the World he was not ignorant that the World would not receive him and yet he sent him nevertheless Though he knew there were many that loved Darkness more than Light notwithstanding the true Light shined from Heaven which enlighteneth every Man that cometh into this World There hath never been so happy a Generation but the worser part hath exceeded in number and always the fewest were pleased with the best things But I doubt whether ever such abominable Impudence in sinning came to so great a height in any Age. Wherefore I confess that so much the more their Endeavours should be encouraged who give all diligence for this purpose and rebuke with sharpness that wickedness may be purged away out of the Christian Common-wealth For what can they do more agreeably But yet Christ Should not therefore be expelled from the Church Yea if I may be allowed to speak freely I know not whereunto this so great depravation and overflowing of all most abominable iniquities should be imputed but that Christ the best Instructer of Life doth not so reign in the minds of Men as in right he ought This World hath its Adorers But Christ also hath his own miserable and afflicted Elect in the World the care of whom should not be neglected Therefore they that are angry at the filthy Manners of this Life do well therein but yet they do not ill that are angry at the corrupt Errours of Doctrine about which according to my Opinion no less care should be taken then about Manners The Prophet is commanded to declare unto his People their sins True indeed But again the same Prophet is commanded to comfort his People Also the Voice of the Prophet is commanded to Prophesie with a loud Cry to the Cities of Iudah concerning the Saviour their King and his Reward and the Saving Grace and Glory of God which was to be revealed in that People So then the Church hath her Prophets I know and acknowledge it And again the Divine Bounty so dispenseth its Gifts that the same hath also its Evangelists But now where is there one of all the Prophets that came before Christ's Time but he is found frequently to Evangelize something of Christ very sweetly with joyful Proclamations We bear the same testified by Peter To him faith he all the Prophets bear witness That as many as believe in him shall receive remisfion of sins Wherefore as those are not to be defrauded of their own praise who do all they can to bring the brutish minds of the People to a deteflation of their own evil deeds So again it should be inquired into Whether this is all that must be done Thou callest them back to Repentance who are running on headlong into their sins and thou dost well for it is a great thing But what will this so much avail unless Christ also being received by Faith come together with thy Repentance For thou art not pardoned only upon the account of thy remorse at the remembrance of thy by-past Life but because Christ who never sinned died for thee Though again neither doth he forgive any but him that repents truely and from his Heart Therefore these two must be joyned together and always retained in the Church But so that
words seems to be this That Salvation is prepared for all without grief without the lessening of Riches by communicating to the Poor without the detestation of a fault committed And after the interval of a few words But if you think that a Wicked Man though be flyes not at all from his wickedness obtains righteousness by Faith only who hath been more absurd who hath been more out of his wits than thou since the Creation of Mankind That I on the other side Osorius may answer to these things but in a few words If that were true which you falsly say of Luther perhaps you might gainsome praise both of a Learned Orator and an Honest Accuser But now seeing he never so much as dreamed of these things neither can you bring forth one word from so many of his Sayings and Deeds to maintain your unjust accusation I say not in your words Who hath been more absurd who hath been more out of his wits than you since the Creation of Man But if I may be allowed to say this speaking very modestly that you are too much forgetful not only of your duty but also of the argument in which you are exercised and whilst you are writing of Righteousness you do so far against all Righteousness most basely bespatter and shamefully lash a Godly Man a Servant of Christ that never deserved ill at your hands with feigned Lyes and Reproaches and all kind of abuses either through ignorance finding fault with the things you have not read or wresting those things to a wrong Sense which you are not willing to understand in a right Sense What if the Eternal possession of Salvation must not be hoped for from any thing else but works of Righteousness as chiefly you Osorius do teach that I may comprehend also Hosius and your familiar Friend Andradius in the same Category What hope can you have of your own Salvation from these works of yours to wit your most false Accusations and reproachful Libels in which against Law and Right breaking the bonds of all Righteousness you vomit forth those lying slanders against your Neighbour and that in the publick Theatre of the World for no valuable cause nor for any true reason nor upon any other account but because perhaps you are stirred up with your own immoderate passion Luther indeed did write of Faith I know and confess it but what then What fault I pray you did he commit in so doing What hath he deserved Why might not he as well write of Faith as you of Righteousness but perhaps that displeases you not that he did write of Faith but because attributing too much thereunto he refers the whole of our Righteousness to this Faith Be it so and you on the contrary refer all to the works of the Law which of you two is worthiest to be accused Which comes nearest to Evangelical Doctrine You who refer all to and comprehend all in the observance and study of the Law or he that refers unto and comprehends all in the Faith of Christ Let Paul be called for a Witness and Umpire between you who though he himself was very careful in observing the Law of God in his Epistle to the Philippians proposing a twofold manner of Righteousness the one of the Law and the other of Faith he judges the latter to be so much better and prefers it so far before the other that he esteemed all those other things of his own though otherwise excellent and praise-worthy things being placed in the study of the Law of God yet he esteemed them all as loss yea as dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Iesus Christ that he might be found in him having on the Righteousness not which is of the Law but which is of the Faith of Christ which is the Righteousness of God by Faith c. What then shall you bring us away from this faith which is placed in Christ and call us back to that dung contrary to the will of Christ and the Doctrine of Paul that by your teaching and guideance we may be found to possess a righteousness not that which is placed in Faith but that which is only placed in the Law And are you upon this account so outragiously invective against Luther because he chose rather to follow Pauls opinion than yours in this point of Salvation No but there is some other thing in the wind which puts you in such a heat of contending not because Luther attributes Righteousness to faith to which you your self use sometimes to attribute very much but because he so shuts up our Salvation in this faith alone that he seems wholly to exclude and despise the excellent works of Charity and labours after Piety in the point of Iustification and Righteousness before God In Academical exercises where arguments are examined according to the Rules of Logick those conclusions are justly found fault with that proceed from a thing said in particular to prove a thing said in the general which thing there is no man that is in any degree exercised in these matters but he may easily perceive in your Sophistry But if Luther had ever been a Man that had simply condemned the commendable diligence in good works or honest actions of vertues I should not save him from your lashes or from being accounted worthy of such Ornaments as your modesty puts upon him that he might be judged the plague of his Countrey a turbulent Person and disturber of Religion Add hereunto if you please the other flowers of your Satyrical Eloquence under which you expose him in such an appearance or disguise as one of the most cruel and dreadful Monsters that ever was in the World An Answer to the Accusations of Osorius in defence of Luther BUT now passing by your Reproaches let us consider the matter it self and the strength and finews of your Discourse For this is your Opinion that for the obtaining of righteousness the godly fruits of good works should by no means be removed from a Communion with faith which otherwise cannot be lively and saving being without charity And because Luther does this you conclude after this manner that he condemns all works of good men that he is an enemy and destroyer of all honest Discipline an Author of prophane impurity and licentiousness a plague of his Countrey a troubler and disturber of all Religion yea and a Monster and what not But I beseech you Sir bethink your self and have a care what you belch forth against any man with an unbridled rashness the Law commands you to shun leasing And do you who are so great an extoller of righteousness against all righteousness tear honest and innocent men in pieces with false accusations for if a Man doth not attribute unto works the chiefect efficacy and preemince in the point of Iustification is that sufficient cause to suppose that therefore he utterly condemns good works Verily it is
I am so far from slighting that I desire they may remain most firmly fixed in the minds of men for as nothing appears in the most holy manners of Christ which is not very worthy of imitation so no part of duty seems more agreeable to every Christian than that all of us should endeavour with all our might to resemble the image proposed unto us especially seeing Paul so gravely and that in more places than one calls us hereunto who making a Comparison of both Fathers Adam and Christ declares what we received of both By Man saith he came death and by Man came the Resurrection from the dead And presently after proceeding on that matter the first Man was of the earth earthly the second Man is the Lord from Heaven And afterwards concluding with words to the same purpose and exhorting us to imitate the example of his obedience he subjoyns as we have born saith he the image of the earthly let us bear also the image of the heavenly And the Apostle Peter not differing much from Paul proposes Christ for an Example of all long suffering for saith he Christ also suffered for us giving us an Example that ye should follow his footsteps who did no sin who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed all judgment to his Father c. Therefore that you contend so earnestly with the Blessed Apostles for following the footsteps of Christ herein we do very willingly both hear you and assent unto you But that you place all the dignity of our Salvation in this that you refer all the promises of God to this one head as if there were no cause of Salvation but that which is placed only in precepts and instructions of Life herein your discourse seems to pass far beyond the bounds of sound and Apostolick Doctrine For though it is a thing of very great concernment that we should frame all the endeavours and Offices of Life to the imitation of him yet Salvation is not therefore promised because our actions agree to this rule of Righteousness neither is the title of Righteousness given us because we live vertuously but because he was made Righteousness for us For we do not become just before God by imitation but by Regeneration As of Old not through our fault but Adams not by Imitation but by Birth and Propagation the pollution of his Sin was imputed to us unto Condemnation So by vertue of the Second Adam not by any power of our own by being born again not by imitating is Righteousness imputed to us unto the Iustification of Life Neither doth it therefore follow that the examples of Christ are not proposed to us for Imitation It is one thing to reason from causes to effects another thing to reason from effects to causes What if the cause is enquired into that makes us righteous before God Paul will answer That Christ is the external cause who was made Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God through him But the Internal is our Faith in Christ which is imputed to them that believe forRighteousness But if you ask what are the the effects of this cause Who knows not that they are the Fruits of Pious Works and this very imitation of Christ which you so greatly yea and so deservedly cry up and extol For who can rightly call himself a Christian as you say very well who doth not apply his mind as much as he can to separate himself from all society of the Earthly Father and frame and conform himself wholly to the example of the Heavenly I grant this to be very true as indeed it is For I do not disallow of that which you do rightly assume but I confute that which you would falsly gather from hence For thus you conclude To wit that the whole Magazine of our Salvation is placed in this that by our Pious Labour and Industry we should purchase the Kingdom of God for our selves That they who affirm Faith only is sufficient for Salvation are mad and singularly serviceable to the Old Serpent and that every action we undertake is wholly unprofitable if Faith only is sufficient This is the summ of the Epilogue of this whole debate of yours In which what do you else but by an unskilful huddle of things and without order in disputing turn causes into effects and again effects into causes What when the Apostle Admonishes that Wives should be subject to their Husbands and acknowledge their Authority as the Church is subject to Christ her Husband shall she therefore that is by a Lawful Covenant Married to her Husband not be a Wife before there is added a testimony of due obedience So Children born of Creditable Parents use to resemble them not only in the Lineaments of their Bodies but also in the likeness of their Manners of whom they are begotten What if in some part their resemblance fails What if their manners are dissolute What if they have such a Son as the parable of the Gospel represents to us Who leaving his Father doth no part of his duty shall he therefore cease to be a Son Or shall any Man by the merits of his Life attain to be a Son who is by nature a Servant You may say to what purpose are these things That by these examples you may understand that effects depend on causes and causes are not governed by effects An honest Matron carries with that subjection to her Husband that becomes her and he on the otherside performs his duty in cherishing his Wife These things follow the Conjugal bond but they do not make it just so it is in the Spiritual descent which like another nature regenerates us to Christ and transforms us as new Creatures into the Sons of God Of which thing if the cause be enquired not Works not Hope not Charity but only Faith in Christ Not any Imitation but Baptism being the Sacrament of Faith performs it Concerning which let us hear Paul testifying in very evident Words All of you saith he are the Sons of God through Faith in Christ Iesus Whosoever of you are Baptized in Christ have put on Christ. He that walks being Cloathed with Christ What can be wanting to him unto all Glory and Beauty of Righteousness What can any Man desire more for the security of Eternal Life What is more boundless than Sublimity What is more Sublime than Nobility of Birth What is more excellent than the dignity of high degree Than to be received not only for Servants or Dependents of the Mighty God who comprehends all things by his Power but also as Sons yea and Heirs But if you design to be taught how these so many and so great good things come to us Paul makes Answer By Faith saith he ye are all Sons If Sons then Heirs according to promise And if you ask when that comes to pass whether after the
due manner Grace is necessarily requisite to wit to fulfill them with that Charity that ought to be by which the fulfilling of them becomes Meritorious Which Comment of theirs we having formerly explained how false and frivolous it is there is no need now of any new Arguments Verily the Christian Doctrine teaches us far otherways for though we confess that which is reasonable That the Divine Grace is never idle but always stirs up the minds of the Regenerate to the best things yet these Works are never of so great value as to promote them unto Eternal Life which is freely promised by God not to them that Work but to them that Believe or if Salvation is premised to them that Work it is not therefore promised because they Work But they that truly believe do therefore Work because Salvation is promised Therefore Iustification first proceeds in the most direct Order as the cause of good Fruits but that is not effected by these But it consists only of the free favour of him that confers it upon them not upon the account of them that Merit but upon another account to wit That whereby the most bountiful Father of his own Will hath given to us Meriting nothing his only begotten Son who hath fulfilled the Law for us and hath satisfied the Iustice of God for our Unjustice For herein consists all our Salvation and the Efficacy of Divine Grace and the praise thereof appears very evidently Not that we in the mean while being idle should do nothing but that doing all things we should Attribute nothing to our selves imputing all to the Mercy of God Which things that they may be confirmed with the greater evidence and certainty let us compare them with the most sure Oracles of Sacred Scripture And First beginning at the very first Head of that Book let us consider Adam that Miserable Progenitor and Overturner of our Nature Who when he had both privately and publickly destroyed both himself and us all by an abominable Wickedness received at length the most Blessed Tidings of the promised Seed What could the bounty of God have promised more firmly or given more largely to any Man though he had been most Holy And what did that first and chiefest sinner deserve to receive Abraham was commanded to leave his Native Country and to go out whither God called him thereunto was added a very glorious promise of giving him an Inheritance and he obeyed him that called him The promiser did not fail he was increased and enriched above measure but if I ask by what Merit of his own what can the Admirers of Works answer me here Afterwards Ifaac was born to him when his Father and Mother were so Old that there was no hope remaining of their begetting Children Why so But that God might make it manifest that in the benefits of God there is not left any thing for Human Pride wherein it may glory Ioseph very kindly helped his Brethren who were in danger to Perish for Hunger though they had very inhumanly Conspired his Destruction neither did he only furnish them with plenty of Corn but also promoted them to great Honours And now what Merits did they bring with them that they should be so Honourably Entertained The same may be asked concerning the Israelites who having slain a Lamb without blemish were delivered from most grievous Bondage for what Vertues of their own Whether for keeping the Law But the Law was not yet made at least it was not yet written Was it because they obliged the Prophet Moses with kindnesses whom rather they endeavoured to betray by most unjust ways and complaints After they had endured so many laborious Travels and Iourneys they came at length to the promised Land of their Inheritance in which First the Town of Iericho is Besieged the Walls fall down not by strength but by sounds Afterwards having slain and subdued so many Kings in one day the People is placed in their Habitations It was verily a great Miracle of Victory but whence happened this Victory What shall we say Because the Israelites were more in number I suppose it was not so was it because they were stronger Neither was that the cause What did they then excell all the other Nations in Vertues Yea what Nation was ever more perverse But you will say they obliged God to befriend them by observance of his Worship Yea how often and how grievously did they exasperate God with their sins How wickedly did they murmur against their Leaders and so provoked the anger of God against themselves How often was the Clemency of God by their Perfidious Rebellion Wicked Contrivances Untractable Stubbornness Murmuring Concupiscence and Perverseness not only provoked but also almost overcome so that he would have utterly destroyed the Rebellious People with all their Posterity unless Moses the meekest of Men by Humble Prayer with hands lifted up had turned the provoked Anger of God into Mercy But it is better to take notice what the Lord himself speaks against this People with his own Mouth Say not saith he in thy Heart when the Lord thy God shall destroy those Nations before thee For my Righteousness the Lord brought me in to possess this Land whereas those Nations were destroyed for their own Abominations For thou shalt not enter in to possess their Lands for thy own Righteousness nor for the uprightness of thy Heart but because they did wickedly they were destroyed at thy entring in And that the Lord might fulfill the Word which he promised by Oath to thy Fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob Know therefore that the Lord thy God hath not given thee this Land for thy Righteousness for thou art a stiff-necked People c. Ye have heard the naked and simple History but yet true of the thing that came to pass and not only true but also much more Mystical If all things happened to them as the Apostle witnesseth under a figure what else should we judge concerning this History but that under the History lies hid a more hidden Mystery For it can not be doubted that this Land of Canaan that was promised to the Israelites Represents those Celestial and Immortal Mansions of the inheritance above which if it be true let us compare the truth with this figure and shadow the Antitype with the Type Iust as they not being helped by any Merites of their own yea contrary to all their Merits neither for any peculiar cause in them but through the singular favour of God promising and for the sake of the Fathers to whom it was promised by Oath received by gift the possession of the Country that flowed with Milk and Honey So also we should Iudge of the Heavenly Country of Immortality That it is not due to any Vertues or Works of ours but that it comes to us by the free promise of God for the sake of his Son into whose hands all things are given that
them subject to his own command what will those furious and importunate pleaders for Works say here May we not enjoy the bounty of another because we have no ability of our own what will they say that no payment is just but what is paid with a man 's own money That which is done by a Friend for the sake of a Friend is it not just as if it had been done by himself If that which was due from us be paid by the price of Christ is there any Law so cruel as to exact the same debt of us again and what will the Adversaries require more here that he should be condemned for unjust whosoever hath no Righteousness of his own And indeed I acknowledge this to be true in Iudicatories if no Redemption intervene which may satisfie in the room of another But now seeing our Affairs are in such a condition that the condemnation of the Law hath nothing that it can demand of us I think that is a sufficient Plea for us which was done by him who made satisfaction for us But these men do again cry out against us saying that it cannot be by Nature and that it is no less contrary to all natural Reason that any thing should take its being from that form which is not its own but another's I answer That it is true indeed formally as to the essence of a thing but not judicially For tho' the Righteousness of another which is not inherent in us cannot render us essentially just who are by Nature unjust But nothing hinders but the Righteousness of another may help our Righteousness according to Iudicial Imputation just as nothing hinders but the Riches of another may be cast upon anothers Poverty by a certain Communion or Imputation of good things so that he who in himself is poor yet may be esteemed rich in another And not unlike unto this is our Communion of mutual Imputation with Christ for as our sins being imputed to Christ were hurtful to him even unto the damage of punishment so by the like Mystery of dispensation the Righteousness of Christ being adjudged and imputed to us though it doth not inhere in us essentially yet in respect of possession and dispensation of Iudgment it is profitable to us for a reward of Life just as if it had been our own Righteousness for otherways to what purpose is Christ said to have done and suffered all these things for us if what he did and suffered serve not for our advantage But if they serve for our advantage why cannot those things be justly accounted for ours which were undertaken in our name and for our sake If the name of Imputation doth so greatly offend them which they think doth not well agree with Christian Piety wherefore then doth Paul so often seem in his Writings not only to use this word Imputation but to delight in it But afterwards Christ willing we shall discourse of this matter more largely in its own place THE Second Book CONCERNING Faith and the Promise YE have heard then of Grace and Merits of free Imputation and Remission of sins on which depends all our Iustification and Salvation But now seeing this Remission whereof I speak must be received by Faith only it remains that we should in this place treat somewhat of Faith especially for this cause either that we may confute the Calumnies of Adversaries or that if it be possible we may help the Errors of those that are so great Enemies to this manner of Iustifying which we affirm to consist of Faith only without Works Upon which kind of Doctrine if we only or first of all Men should stand I should less wonder at so great Tumults of these Men. But seeing Christ himself and Paul and the Prophets and Apostles profess themselves to be not only Witnesses but also the Authors and Leaders in this Opinion whereby we are taught that we are justified only by Faith in the Son when every one of the most Learned Writers and Interpreters who were of the Primitive Antiquity attest the same with unanimous consent from whose Instructions we our selves also have learned the same what is come to those Popish Wits why they should oppofe themselves so unreasonably and so fiercely And now let us consider what that is which so much offends them Luther disputes that Faith is imputed unto Righteousness without Works Paul the Apostle taught the same before Luther What will Osorius say to me here what will the Pope of Rome himself say what will the Senatours of Trent say To wit that good Works must be joyned with it What must all good Works be joyned with it or not if they shall say all where will they find those that have compleated this exact cyclopedy of Vertues in this Life except the Son of God only But if they understand it of most or some good Works at least yet that will not be sufficient For unless every one of the Vertues joyned together as it were in a mutual Bond are united for Righteousness they cannot profit at all being separate Who ever loved his Neighbour as himself according to the Prescript of the Law But suppose there were some such Man What if such a Man rages with Concupiscence of the Flesh or Eyes though the inward mind doth not consent what if the mind swells with self-love or overflows with the pride of Life what if it is enslaved unto Covetousness or some where fails in its duty what advantage will it be to be observant of Charity Briefly what if it be so that thou aboundest with all other vertues but only failest in one command doth not the Sentence of the Scripture condemn thee for the Violation of the Law Moreover we may speak in the words of Thomas himself That if the mind is inwardly guiltless as to any consent unto the sin yet such is the condition of our Nature saith he that though through grace it is healed in respect of the mind yet in respect of the flesh by reason of which it serves the Law of sin corruption and infection remain in it Rom. 7. The obscurity of ignorance remains also in the intellect concerning which Rom. 8. we we know not what to pray for as we ought c. and Wisd. chap. 9. The thoughts of Mortals are frightful and uncertain of our being provided for c. Hitherto hath Thomas spoken From all which it remains that Iustification confists either in Faith only as in the next cause Or that the Accession of our Vertues which are neither perfect nor intire do not at all avail to Righteousness before God but rather to accusation For Cursed is every one that abides not in all things that are commanded in the Book of the Law to do them c. What is the proper Nature and Definition of Faith whereby we are justified before God is enquired into from sure and true Foundations of Scripture By the many things which
reason why this is called the Iustification of a wicked Man in these words To wit because all motion is denominated more from the term to which than from the term from which therefore that Transmutation whereby a Man is changed from a State of unrighteousness through the Remission of sin to a State of righteousness it takes its name from the term to which and it is called the Iustification of the wicked These things said he and he said not amiss if so be it be rightly understood for suppose we grant that which must necessarily be acknowledged that there is no Iustification of a wicked Man without a Transmutation and that Transmutation is not made without Remission and also that there is no motion without a twofold term yet there is a twofold consideration requisite here First where he places his term to which That is where he would place this State of Righteousness If in this life it is false But if in the other it is most true For here by the help of Divine grace we proceed from Vertue to Vertue But we shall attain the term of full Righteousness only in the life to come And then as touching the word Righteousness I must ask Thomas what Righteousness he means if he means Human or Inherent Righteousness whereby he thinks we are Iustified before God I answer That we shall never attain unto that state of Righteousness in this life But if he understand That Righteousness which 〈◊〉 Preaches which is God's and not ours the assertion of Thomas doth not at all differ from the words of the Apostle for thus saith he that we might be made the Righteousness of God through him First what is called this Righteousness of God but that which is not ours Which God approves in us by his imputation And then why doth he add through him but that we may understand that this Righteousness consists not in any performance of our Vertues but is only upon the account of Christ's imputed to us that he only may be just and the justifier of him that is of the Faith of Iesus Reasons are brought against the Definition of Iustification set down by Thomas BUT because here we fall into a debate with Thomas about the definition of Iustification Out of whose Breasts the late School Divines seem to have sucked whatsoever poyson runs in this Controversie It will not be unconvenient as it were by tracing his Foot-steps to pursue the deceits of this definition by a more exact enquiry and to confute them by just Authority that we may as much as in us lies bring to nothing these Sophistical tricks But by what reason more happily or by what authority more conveniently shall I do it then if I oppose St. Hierom to St. Thomas who I think is nothing inferior to him as it were beating out one hard wedge with another harder wedge Now whereas Thomas measuring this peripatetical Iustification by a Physical Motion he terminates it by these bonds to wit That it is a Transmutation from a Term of Unrighteousness by Remission of sins to a Term or State of Righteousness immediately the Divines of the Council of Trent following him snatch at this same definition and thus express it that it is a Translation from that State in which Man is born a Son of the first Adam into a State of grace and adoption of the Sons of God by the second Adam Iesus Christ our Saviour Though this latter definition seems to be somewhat more cautious in words but it differs not much in the Sense yet one answer is sufficient to both of them And first I ask this of Thomas and then of the Tridentines What they mean by this motionary Translation of theirs from Term to Term from State into State as they teach If this be their meaning that we who before were dead in sins having our sins afterwards forgiven through Christ and being again received into grace with God being freed from death and the bond of Damnation are vouchsafed into favour and received unto life and Placed in a free condition Herein they do wholly agree with us But if otherways they think thus That there is no Iustification made but that which consists of the change of qualities so that he who before was a sinner an Evil Doer a Deceiver a Perjured person an Adulterer a Glutton and Drunkard having changed his life now begins to be another Man fasts twice a week and out of his own wealth willingly supplies the want of the needy being forward to help all unto the expending of the tenth part of all his goods and so leading his life and changed into a new Man that he appears Iust and Holy not by thatRighteousness which either needsRemission or is imputed to the bounty of the Iudge But which by reason of true Vertues inhering by grace is justly approved in the sight of God What hinders I beseech you but upon this account the Pharisee in comparison of the Publican goes away justified The Histories of the Heathen Nations abound with examples of many who when they had been very much corrupted by their own disposition or by education returned afterwards to a remarkable amendment of their Life and a habit of good manners And what will hinder but we may reckon those also among the Iustified according to the Philosophy of Thomas If so be Iustification be nothing else but a certain motion from contrary into contrary that is a transmutation from a state of Unrighteousness to a state of Righteousness But there is added in the definition by the remission of Sin and what does this help their cause For if there is no other Iustification but that which consists of Remission of Sins why then do they of Trent deny Iustification to confist of Remission of Sins only Moreover whereas in the Remission of Sins always a suspicion of hidden Sin lyes hid which needs the Patronage of a Pardon where now will that state and term of Inherent Righteousness consist which cannot otherways defend it self before the Iudge without his Mercy and Remission But why should I contend with any more words about this matter when the Opinion of Hierom is contrary thereunto who speaking particularly of these degrees of Righteousness utterly beats down and overturns all this both Station and term settled by Thomas For whereas Thomas disputing about the motion of Iustification proceeds from one term to another term in which the motion ceases and the transmutation receives an end and station on the contrary Hierom running through all degrees teaches that we never fix in a station and are always in a race in this Life and that that is always imperfect here which we Men thought to be perfect And he confirms it by the example of Paul Who forgetting things past stretched himself always to things beyod him by which he teaches that things which are behind should be neglected and things to come should be desired that what he thought
perfect to day whilest he always endeavours after better things the morrow he finds it imperfect These things said Hierom. Therefore if Paul being in perpetual motion could find no ftate of Righteousness in which he could rest It follows by consequence from hence that either there is no Iustification of a Christian in this Life or that surely it is not defined by its right terms by Thomas or the Thomists whence a just connexion is framed on this manner Argument Ma. Where there is a perpetual Race there is no station nor term of motion Mi. There is a perpetual Race in this Life towards obtaining Life Con. Therefore there is no station of attaining to Righteousness in this Life and end of notion which Thomas sets down By these things I think it is sufficiently evidenced what is the Iustification of a Wicked Man in the Scriptures and in what thing it chiefly consists not in a transmutation of inherent qualities by a voluntary receiving of Grace as they of Trent would have it but in the judiciary absolution of the Iudge whereby he that is guilty is sent away free and indemnity is given to him Whence Iustification seems to be defined not amiss by some That it is an action of God whereby he absolves the condemned Sinner from the Law in his free mercy for the sake of Christ justifies him from his Sins and glorifies him being justified Though in the mean while it is not denied that it is a matter of great concernment how every Man leads his Life and amends it But yet it is one thing to speak of Righteousness and another thing to speak of Iustification And again it is one thing to be exercised in the common use of Life and another thing to be exercised in judicatories There the amendment of Life hath praise but in judicatories no regard uses to be of what you are to do but of what you have done not what new qualities better Grace hath brought but by what remedy former Sins may be done away And now I pray you what then must be said and looked for in that most strict Iudgment of the most high God where the scene and sink of the wholeLife comes to be brought forth from its lurking places to the light where impurity of Life Deceits Injuries Filthiness of Lusts the Defilement of Conscience and Concupiscence the Wickedness of Words Works Counsels and Thoughts the Ambition of a pust up Mind the stubborness of Hatred Love Envy and the other Affections Rebelling against Reason the Love of the World Earthly Desires the Contempt and Ignorance of God The neglect of Duty Moreover the whole sink of things formerly done will be all at once laid open What will the miserable Sinner say here What will he bring To what will he fly Will he fly to his secret Confessions and Expiatory Penances and Satisfactions that will not be sufficient These things may declare thee to be a Sinner and a Penitent but not at all Righteous What then you will say hath not God promised to the Penitent the pardon of their Sins Be it so but where then is the Tridentine Iustification which is denied to consist of Remission only whereas you bring nothing into Iudgement but Confessions Penances and Deprecatory Tears For what need is there of any Satisfaction or Repentance when you have committed no Sin But if otherways Where then is your Righteousness whereof you boast To wit say you Remission of Sins being once received by Repentance together with Remission it self flows in Sanctification and the Renovation of the inner Man and the other gifts of Grace by the Holy Spirit whence Man of Unjust becomes Iust and of an Enemy a Friend c. What and dare you trusting in this Righteousness of yours enter the lists with the Majesty of so great a Iudgment And think you that your Vertues are such that they will overcome at this Iudgment Seat when they are Iudged Not by the Righteousness say you of my Vertues but by those works which the efficacious Grace of God works in me Which Righteousness is not mine but God's Not of my own Free will but of Grace acting in me Now then wherein will this Righteousness of yours differ from that Pharisee in the Parable of the Gospel Whose Life if you look into you see it is honest enough and unblamable if you look upon Grace he seems no less to acknowledge it and to attribute all his Vertues to it Otherways why did he with so much reverence and so carefully give thanks to God that he was not like other Men unless he had thought that whatsoever good Works he had were received of his gift and bounty For his Prayer doth sufficiently declare that wherein he seems not so much to Glory in his own good deeds as in the grace of God which he had received to which he ascribes all these things which he had done Therefore if it be true that these Roman Catholicks define That true Iustification consists in no other thing but in Works of Righteousness done by the grace of God what then doth hinder but this Catholick Pharisee according to their Catholick Opinion should be sent away to his House justified Which not being so it remains therefore that another manner of Iustification should be sought for by us than in VVorks of Righteousness which inheres and is planted in us by the grace of God But here the Roman Legions fight with all vehemency for their Catholick Righteousness as for their Camp First by Natural Reason that it is contrary to Nature for any Man to receive the Name or Essence of Righteousness from the Righteousness of another Moreover that it is much less reasonable for God who is the highest perfection of Righteousness and the Eternal Verity to will or be able to pronounce Men Iust that are impure and defiled with wickedness and Evil deeds and who are not truly righteous That I may answer these men two things offer themselves to be considered one which belongs to the cause of Iustification and another which belongs to the explication of the word In both of which the Adversaries are greatly mistaken First in this that treating of the cause of Iustification they seem to place it in no other thing next and immediately but in every man 's own Righteousness not which is imputed being received from another but which every one hath within himself trusting to this foundation That because every thing receives its name and essence only from the form that is inherent hence they gather that none should be accounted just but those only whom their own life and not another's makes righteous If they understand it of Formal Righteousness only and not Iudicial it hath no absurdity and may without any inconvenience be granted to them But what then what is this so much to the purpose for this is not the matter of debate what we are or are not formally in our selves
but what the Sentence of the Iudge doth judicially determine concerning us We contend not about Habitual Righteousness but Evangelical Iustification For it is one thing to dispute about Righteousness and another to dispute about Iustification But these Logical Divines confound these two with one another too unskilfully defining Righteousness thus as if it were nothing else but to make righteous Or if there is any difference this is the manner of it that our Faith in Christ is by no means the cause of perfect Righteousness but only the beginning of that which is to be perfected And that we do not therefore stand as righteous in the sight of God because our sins are forgiven us and we are reconciled to God for Christ's sake Though also they do not deny this that in this very remission or reconciliation where by a wicked man is first justified before God through Faith and the Merit of Christ some part of humane Iustification is contained which also is necessarily requisite But they say that it is not enough that sins are forgiven and that we are reconciled unto God which is the first part of Iustification unless another part also be added thereto which compleats the former which of what sort it is you may see here by their own words When first say they man begins to detest sin as offensive to God and so of a wicked man is made just and reconciled at one and the same time and in the same instant God infuses his Grace waiting no interval of time which Grace where it comes there we having received inward Renovation by the Holy Spirit receive Righteousness and are made truly righteous before God And this is that other part of Iustification whereof I spake without which no Righteousness is truly perfected because it is most certain that God justifies no man or pronounces no man just but him whom by the gift of his Spirit through internal Renovation he makes righteous and cloaths adorns and endues with Righteousness c. Answ. Why should I answer these men in many words If they understand it of the Power of the Divine Bounty I grant that there is nothing which the Infinite Power of the most high God cannot do But it is not the matter of our Controversie what the heavenly Grace can but what it will do Neither doth it follow as a rational consequence because that the Almighty Grace of God can make us just that therefore we are made just Therefore either prove that there is any man endued with such a Righteousness which doth not always stand in need of the Mercy of God Or confess that which is the truth with Augustin that all assurance of our Iustification acquiesces in the remission of sins only through the Mercy of God Against the Tridentines who deny that we are Iustified by Mercy or Remission only BUT it pleased the Tridentine Senate to determine otherways for this is their Opinion That Iustification is not purchased by God's pardoning Grace only but by the commendation of Vertues But let them again hear what Augustin answers them to the contrary who in opposition to the Tridentine Opinions refers all to the Grace of God only and to Imputation writing these words All the Commands of God saith he are esteemed to be done when that which is not done is forgiven A very short sentence if it be reckoned according to the number of words But if we rightly consider their efficacy who sees not that all the buildings of the Adversaries whereby with so much ado they establish their inherency are utterly overturned by this Answer of Augustin Which that it may appear the more evidently First Let us gather the assertion of the Council on which all their defence seems to lean into the exact form of an Argument according to the art and use of Disputants which should rather have been done by them And then let us see what should be answered by the Authority of Learned Interpreters The Argument of the Tridentine Council Argument Ma. Whosoever observe all the Commands of God they have an Inherent Righteousness and that which is their own Mi. Whosoever keep all the Commands of God are esteemed for righteous before God Concl. Therefore they that have a Righteousness which is their own and inherent are justified before God Answer The smoke of this Argument will easily vanish by using the distinction of Augustin Therefore we answer the Minor by the Authority of the Doctor For there is a twofold manner of keeping the Commands one is when whatsoever is commanded by God is done And after this manner the Son of God only is righteous of whom only it is said In the Volume of thy Book it is written of me I come that I might do thy will O God c. The other is when that which is not done is forgiven And after this second manner we are righteous that is we are accounted for righteous not upon any account of Merits but only by the pardon of those things that have been done amiss Wherefore by retorting the Argument upon the Adversaries we may dispute after this manner The retorting of the Argument Ma. The observation of all the Commands of God procures true Righteousness to men Mi. The keeping of all the Commands is performed by remission and imputation when that which is not done is pardoned Concl. Therefore by Remission and Imputation real Iustification is procured for us The Minor is upheld by the legitimate Testimony of Augustin lib. Retract cap. 19. But the Tridentine Heroes do here answer That is true indeed as it is understood of the first Iustification but not of the second For by such an usual Scheme of Sophistical Speech they use to baffle the most evident Oracles of Scripture concerning our free Iustification by Christ. As when Paul reasons of Faith justifying freely without Works they interpret it thus that it is said of the first Iustification which consists of Remission only and Reconciliation by Faith But that there is another Iustification besides this which by inward Renovation is begotten of Inherent Righteousness to which they attribute the much more excellent part of true Iustification But here again Augustin helps by confuting this idle Tale with sound speech who writing of this same second unjust Iustification of theirs Our very Righteousness saith he though it be true because of the end or true good to which it is referred yet it is so great in this life that it consists rather in the remission of sins than in the perfection of Vertues Yea the same Augustin elsewhere adjudges the Life of the Regenerate how laudable soever to a Curse if it is to be judged in a separation from Mercy What then Augustin curses all the Righteousness of Humane Life without the Mercy of God And should not they of Trent be accursed who are not afraid to curse those that with Augustin affirm that all the comfort of our Iustification relies
exhort unto Works of Piety and by the Authority of Scripture thunder the Iudgments of God against Harlots Adulterers Covetous Persons Highway-men Sorcerers that they may know there will be no place for such in the Kingdom of God and Christ except they amend their lives Who was more zealous than Paul in exalting the Righteousness of Faith And who was more Holy in Life than he or more fervent against the sins of those that walked not after the Spirit but after the flesh The Books of our Divines do evidence the same in which they discourse no less of Repentance and good Works than of Faith joyning always the one with the other Therefore as touching the manner of Teaching you will find that it is not Faith only which is Treated of in the Churches and Books of Men of our perswasion But if the matter of debate between us be about the cause of Salvation and Iustification there is nothing more agreeable to sound Doctrine than that an ungodly sinner is Iustified before God by Faith only without Works But you may object this Doctrine hardens the People in their sinful courses If you understand it of all it is false If of evil doers that run on in sin against their Conscience and take no care to restrain their Lusts As for such who ever said or taught that they are Iustified by Faith only And yet nevertheless the Truth of this Assertion remains invincible whereby we affirm that a wicked Man is Iustified by Faith only without Works if the Scope and meaning thereof be well understood Which will be easie if by adding that which supplies the room of a predicate the proposition be made entire As when Faith only is said to Iustifie add unto the Subject of this Enunciation it s own proper predicate or I may rather say add the proper Subject of Iustification and understand aright who they are whom Faith only Iustifies without Works according to the saying of Paul For herein chiefly lies the difficulty of this Controversie Neither is there any thing wherein the Adversaries are more grosly mistaken And herein they follow the Foot-steps of those concerning whom Cyprian justly complains saying They look at that which is said in the first place but regard not what follows after They catch at that which we assert of Faith only Exclusively and think there is injury done to good Works if Faith only is sufficient to Salvation But they take no notice what manner of Persons they are to whom this Iustification by Faith belongs It is the Advice of those School Divines to consider the reasons of things proposed according to their Subject matter and why then do they not observe their own Rule in this Evangelical Assertion Christ affirms it Paul confirms it yea the common practice of life natural Reason and Experience and the Conscience of all good Men proclaim that Ruine comes only from our Works and Salvation only from Christ. And because we receive this only Mediatour Christ by Faith only hence it is that we assert it is Faith that justifies believing sinners before God But let us see what manner of Sinners they are whom Faith Iustifies Is it the Rebellious and Impenitent No verily Then it must be such sinners as are Converted and Humbled and have the fear of God before their Eyes But there is no fear that such will continue to wallow in their former filthiness but on the contrary they are hereby so much the more stirred up to amend their lives All Ages have abounded with Examples of those to whom the Doctrine of free Iustification by Faith in Christ as it conduced much to their necessary consolation so it was no hinderance to their leading an holy life If Charity according as the Adversaries themselves do testifie is the perfection of the Law which is the Rule of Life I would ask such men whether he to whom more or he to whom fewer sins are forgiven hath the strongest obligation to love either God or his Neighbour which of these two mentioned in the Gospel loved Christ with the greater ardency of affection Simon the Pharisee or Mary that brought with her no good works at all but a great multitude of sins And why was her Love to the Lord more vehement but because she had more sins forgiven her But let us proceed Wherefore were so many and so great offences forgiven her but for her Faith which guided her Love for she did not therefore believe in Christ because she loved him but because she knew him to be the Son of God her Faith being thereby incited to act the more vigorously she loved much For Love proceeds from Faith and not Faith from Love Because we believe therefore we Love but we do not believe because we Love-Whence the Lord regarding more her Faith then her Love said unto her thy Faith not thy Love hath saved thee How Love and Repentance are concerned in Iustification BUT You may say Is Faith alone here Is it not joyned together with Love and Repentance I grant indeed that they are all three together in the person of the Believer But in the Case of Iustification Faith only is regarded And the other do follow as Fruits and Effects thereof For as that Woman unless she had believed in the Mediatour made known unto her by Faith she had nevor loved him So she had never come unto him as her Physician unless the Disease of her Troubled Conscience had driven her Wherefore if we reason aright about Causes these things follow 〈◊〉 as Effects and Fruits thereof but they are no causes of obtaining Salvation We have spoken of Mary Magdalene let us now behold the Pharisee and compare the one with the other If the Woman that was a Sinner by her love mericed as they speak Iustification What shall we say of the Pharisee Did not he also love the Lord Would he have gone to him so Courteously or invited him so lovingly or received him into his House so kindly or entertained him at Dinner so honourably unless he had been moved with some Affection of Love What shall I say of his Faith Did he not believe being instructed by the Holy Scriptures in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth Did he not receive Christ as a Prophet Now he believing in the Father and receiving the Son with Affectionate Love What could be wanting to him that was necessary to Iustification If so be all our Iustification is perfected by Charity And yet I suppose no Man will say that this Pharisee was justified by Christ that is set free from all Condemnation by this love of his Why Because Faith in Christ as a Saviour was wanting But suppose he had Faith and he trusting to his own Righteousness and being puffed up with Pride upon that account had begged no help and imagined he needed no Pardon would this Faith have availed him to Iustification I do no not believe it But
the cause of blessedness this manner of arguing will appear to be more forcible by an evident Testimony of Scripture Argument Ma. That which is the cause of blessedness the same is the cause of Iustification Mi. Remission of Sins is the cause of blessedness and Salvation Con. Theresore Remission of Sins is the cause of Iustification But you may say What must then be answered to the Words of Christ who seems to promise the blessedness of the Kingdom as a reward of Works You may find an answer to this objection in the Book of Iacobus Cartusiensis who hath written on this manner Men do accept and love the persons of others for their Works that are acceptable and profitable to them but God accepts the Works for the sake of the person c. Therefore here there is need of a distinction between the Work and the person of the Worker But you may say Are not Works that are performed in Charity for the relief of the Poor pleasing and acceptable to God We deny not that our selves But we enquire into the cause wherefore they become acceptable Which that it may appear the more evidently let us examine these words of Scripture I was an hungred said Christ and ye gave me Meat I was thristy and ye gave me Drink c. I ask in the first place who is it here that was an hungred You will say Christ either himself in his own Body or in a Member of his Body Did you then feed Christ when he was an hungred That was Piously done indeed Therefore I see and commend what you have done But I ask what was it that stirred you up to do it Whether was it Charity setting Faith a work or was it not rather Faith setting Charity a work But what if some other that was no Member of Christ whether Heathen or Turk had need of your Meat Would you in your Charity have fed him I doubt of that But suppose you your self had not believed in Christ but had been an Enemy to him if you had seen one that belonged to Christ almost ready to perish for hunger would you have relieved him I do not believe so Why Because it is only believers that feed Christ but Infidels persecute him The Lord was thirsty on the Cross and he had Vinegar given him for drink which was a Hellish wickedness But why did they give him Vinegar Was it want of Love or was it not rather want of Faith in those unbelieving Pharisees Who if they had not wanted Faith they would not have wanted Charity to administer help and Charity would not have been unrewarded But let us proceed Suppose one that is not a believers whether Turk or Heathen should refresh a hungry Christian by giving him of his Meat as old Simon the Pharisee entertained Christ with a Dinner And many of the Heathens have been Eminent in offices of kindness and Love Can the giving of Meat and Drink by any such without Faith merit Eternal Life Surely not But if a believer gives his Christian Brother so much as a Cup of cold Water in his necessity shall he lack his Reward Christ himself says he shall not Hereby you may see whence it is that our Vertues and good deeds are acceptable to God and dignified with Rewards not for themselves but for the Faith of him that works them which first justifies the person before all works And after the person is justified his performances are accepted and though they are of small value in themselves yet they are looked upon as great and rewarded plentifully Wherefore we deny not that sometimes in the Scriptures the name of Reward is joyned with Eternal Life and that the works of Brotherly Charity may in some sense be called meritorious if so be these works are performed by persons who are already justified and received into favour by remission of sins and have obtained a right unto the promise of Eternal Life Not that their works are of such value that they should make satisfaction to the Law of God or merit any thing with God ex congruo or condigne as they phrase it either by congruity or worthiness But they are imputed as Merit by Grace Not that Eternal Life is due to the works themselves but because there are consolations laid up in Heaven for Saints and persons in a justified state to support them in their afflictions Eternal Life not being due to them for their works but by right of the promise just as a Son and Heir to whom his Father's Inheritance is due doth not merit the right of Sonship by any duties that he performs but he being born a Son his duties upon that account are meritorious so that he wants not a due reward and recompence Therefore in this Popish Argument there is a fallacy Another Argument taken from the words of Christ Matth. 25. Da. HE that doth the will of the Father shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Ti. It is the will of the Father that we should do good works that are commanded in his Law Si. Therefore an entrance into Heaven is obtained by the works of the Law Answer Suppose we grant all contained in this Argument what will these Roman Iusticiaries infer from thence Therefore as Vega speaks Faith is not sufficient to Salvation without the keeping of the Commandments It is easie to answer him in a word Let him keep the Commandments according to the exact Rule of the Divine Will and he shall be saved But neither he nor any other man can perfectly keep the Commands of God in this Life From whence we infer this by necessary consequence That either there is no hope of obtaining the Kingdom or else that it lies not in the works of the Law Now if it be so what remains but that finding this is not the way to Heaven we should seek for another way and because there is no door of Salvation opened to sinners in the Law of Commandments therefore we must flie to another Refuge But what that Refuge is appearing to us from Heaven it self the Divine Will declares unto us which is not set forth in the Old Law but in the New Testament of the Gospel And this is his Will that every one who believeth in the Son should not perish but have Eternal Life For whereas the Law was weak because of the flesh God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Objection But here some may object Will the Faith of Christ justifie us in such a manner that there may be a Legality and Impunity for us to disobey the Will of his Father God forbid The Liberty of the Gospel allows not that for it openly affirms That they who are justified by the Faith of Christ walk not after the flesh but
be feigned by the Apostle for Amplification which is not nor can be And seeing Thomas Aquin. here by all Faith understands perfect Faith Therefore because perfect Faith is not found without Charity it is necessary that according to the Interpretation of Basil we should here take notice of a Trope or Fiction which Quintilian also reckons amongst the forms of amplifying Therefore whereas we deny a Dead Faith without Charity to deserve the name of Faith we speak this by a very usual Trope as we say That an unprofitable and idle Man is no Man or Wine which is decayed and hath lost its strength is no Wine Therefore that which is cited out of Paul If I have all Faith but have not Charity c. Must be understood thus Not that Paul simply affirms Faith to be a gift of God without Charity But he speaks Figuratively to amplifie the praise of Charity as he that says Though I have an hundred Tongues and as many Mouths yet I could not fully set forth the matter as it is he doth not therefore presuppose that there is any Man who hath an hundred Tongues and as many Mouths Paul useth the like Figurative Speech Though I speak with the Tongues of Men and Angels for Angels have no Tongues but it is feigned by way of Amplification to signifie some excellent Tongues surpassing those that are human Thus he said If what hath been hitherto said doth not satisfie the Adversaries I Answer thus That this Speech of Paul belongs not to the manner of Iustification but to the Life of the Iustified Person If I have all Faith saith he But want Charity c. What then Therefore Charity enters together with Faith into Iustification But this is no good Consequence But this is rather the consequence thereof Therefore Charity is necessary in the Regenerate Which must of necessity be granted for Love is necessary and pleasing to God To wit In those that are in a state of Reconciliation and for the sake of Christ. For God naturally delights in the Obedience of his own Which though it be imperfect yet he approves of any endeavours in those that are reconciled unto him by Christ. So then Faith that is Christ apprehended by Faith Iustifies us freely But on the other side we must not receive this Grace in vain But he receives it in vain who is not obedient to the precepts and example of Christ. Howbeit there are also some that answer that this Faith here mentioned by the Apostle should only be taken for the Faith of Working Miracles amongst whom is Chrysostom who calls this the Faith not of Doctrine but of Miracles Moreover whereas they urge this word of the Apostle as if he had used it in a general signification To this it may be answered that the Word all signifies often not the universality of a kind but the perfection of a species to which it is joyned as 2 Cor. 9. God is able to make every good gift abound in you that having all sufficiency in all things c. In like manner in this place of Paul If I have all Faith that is the most perfect Faith of working Miracles so that I can remove Mountains c. Another place out of Paul 1 Cor. 13. Now these three remain Faith Hope and Charity but the greater of these is Charity Argument Our Iustification flows from the more worthy cause Charity is a thing more worthy and great than Faith Therefore we are justified more by Charity than by Faith Or if you would rather take it thus If we were justified by Faith and not by Charity Faith would be greater than Charity But Charity is greater than Faith Therefore we are justified rather by Charity than by Faith Answer That I may briefly Answer both these Arguments First let us rightly conceive not only the words of the Apostle but in what sense he speaks them These three remain saith he but the greater of these is Charity in which words we hear the Apostle preferring Charity before Faith And we acknowledge it to be true but let us see in what sense it is true I will make use of an argument like it There hath not risen a greater than Iohn the Baptist amongst those that are born of Women Therefore Iohn the Baptist must be greater than Christ. I answer from the sense of the Scripture Though Christ seemed less than Iohn the Baptist by the judgment of the World and the general opinion of People yet in the Kingdom of Heaven he was and always will be greater than Iohn we may observe something like this in Faith and Charity Though in this World in Mens dealings with one another mutual Charity hath the preeminence Yet in the Kingdom of Heaven that is in our concernments with God against Satan Death Sin the Iudgement of God his Wrath and Vengeance and the terrors of Conscience Faith doth so far excel that it only hath the Dominion not only above Charity but also without it If the dignity and excellency of any thing is discernable by its effects and performances as a Tree is known by its Fruits let us now compare these Vertues with one another that it may the better appear what each of them can do what is the efficacy of Charity what Faith performs and how much it excels And first as touching Charity and its Offices let us hear how greatly the Apostle commends it Charity saith he is patient and bountiful and courteous fitted for every condition of Life Charity doth not envy doth not behave it self unseemly is not puffed up seeks not its own things but seeks the good of all it is not easily offended nor desirous of revenge and though it suffer injury it deviseth not to do evil to any man it delights not in the wickedness of the wicked but rejoyceth in the Truth it suffers all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things waiting for better with an undefatigable expectation Though other things may fail though Prophecies and Miracles and Knowledge may cease yet Charity will never fail mutual Love will endure for ever Hitherto ye have heard the Apostle set forth the duties and offices of Charity with deserved praise which though they are exceeding great and magnificent and cannot be sufficiently commended by any man according to their worth yet such is the nature of all these offices of Charity that they pass not beyond the bounds of this mortal Life and the mutual Communion of Christians with one another But now let us raise up our minds as high as we can to contemplate the power and efficacy of Faith and what it doth not only upon the Earth but in Heaven in the presence of God Whilst Charity is exercised in this inferiour World amongst men Faith ascends into the Kingdom of God where first by a sublime contemplation it lays hold on the Son of God the Mediatour at the right hand of Majesty
for Mercy and cast himself wholly upon Christ what would the Apostle Iames say in such a case Will not Faith only without Works justifie such a man as this The penitent Malefactor is an evident proof of the truth of this who had no other thing but Faith only to commend him to Christ and so to be admitted into Paradise Like unto which there are many Examples daily of them that die on Gibbets so that the Iudgments of God are very wonderful who hath mercy on whom he will have mercy But now let us return to what we were saying of Abraham If we look upon his Faith what was more sincere If we consider his Works what was more glorious and wonderful Therefore upon both accounts he was certainly an admirable man Now let us compare his Faith with his Works And because it is evident that he was justified before God let us enquire whether he was justified by Faith 〈◊〉 Works because he could not be justified upon both accounts as the Apostle witnesseth If it is of Faith then it is not of Works but if it is of Works then it is not of Faith What shall we say then to these things let the Scripture answer Abraham believed God when he promised and it was accounted to him for Righteousness And the same Abraham obeyed God when he commanded and why doth not the Scripture in like manner add That this was imputed to him for Righteousness Let us hear what the Apostle answers The Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Gentiles by Faith he first told the glad tydings to Abraham and what glad tydings was this That he and his Seed should be Heirs of the World A great Promise indeed But how did he obtain this Promise by Faith or by Works There is an answer ready made to our hand by the Apostle The Promise came not by the Law to Abraham or to his Seed that he should be Heir of the World but by the Righteousness of Faith Why so Paul why not by the Law and why by the Righteousness of Faith That he might be the Father of all the faithful who walking in the footsteps of the Faith which was in the Uncircumcision of our Father Abraham shall have Faith in like manner imputed unto them But here St. Iames is represented as fighting with all his might against this Doctrine For the Adversaries say thus Did not the Apostle Iames assert with great Authority That Abraham was justified by Works and will ye deny it God forbid that any man should undervalue the Authority of that holy Apostle And yet I suppose St. Iames would not have us to disbelieve the Scripture which teaches us far otherways attributing the Iustification of Abraham not to Works but to Faith For Abraham believed God and we read it was imputed unto him for Righteousness But God hath not said in his Word concerning Abraham's going to sacrifice his Son That it was imputed to him for Righteousness Or let us grant the assertion of St. Iames That Abraham was justified by Works But where and how was he thus justified before God St. Iames says not so Then it is before men And Paul himself denies not that So that there is no real disagreement between Paul and Iames. But this doth not satisfie some Sophisters who account it is not enough that the holy Patriarch is justified by Works before men as Paul teaches unless he be also thereby justified before God For though he was first justified by Faith as they say yet nothing hinders but that afterwards he might be yet more justified by Works and this they call a second Iustification But Reason shews that to be an utter impossibility for it implies a manifest contradiction for it is a contradiction not to be justified by Works and again to be justified by Works And seeing one of those is denied by the Apostle How can they maintain and plead for the other But hereunto may be added another Reason If there is a twofold Iustification one by Faith and another by Works it would follow that there is a twofold manner of Iustifying But there is one and the same manner of Iustifying as there is one God as hath been proved out of Ambrose Therefore it appears that there is not a twofold Iustification A third Reason is this seeing Iustification consists of the Remission of Sins and God forgives no Man his Sins to whom he doth not perfectly forgive them Therefore it follows that the Iustification of those that are justified is compleat and perfect and cannot be made more perfect than it is already Now in the next place let them prepare to answer this Argument of Paul Whosoever is justified by Works hath whereof he may Glory before God Rom. 4. Abraham hath not any thing whereof he may Glory before God Therefore Abraham is not justified by Works before God By these things which we have quoted out of Paul and other sacred writings I suppose it appears evident enough what we should judge of the Works of Abraham Which though they were excellent and worthy to be admired before men yet they found no place for glorying before God according to the Testimony and Interpretation of the Apostle We need not be at any great trouble to find out the cause thereof Tiletan and other Iesuits produce a cause thereof out of Augustin Because the Works of Abraham were not of the Law but of Faith not of the Flesh but of Grace which because they were not done by the Power of Free-will only but in the Faith and expectation of Christ therefore all Praise and Glory was due to Christ and none to them which Invention of theirs though it savours more of Wit than Solidity yet though we grant all this to them there is no inconvenience in it seeing both of us acknowledge with Paul that the Patriarch Abraham found neither matter of glorying nor Iustification before God by Works and therefore that he had no cause of glorying because he was not justified by Works for otherways if he had been justified by Works he should have had wherein to Glory as the Apostle Paul speaks But now he hath not any thing wherein he may Glory before God therefore he was not justified by Works And thus hitherto we have treated of the Arguments of the Adversaries as much as may suffice not only to discover but also confute their Sophistical Wiles and captious Deceits who fight with so great eagerness for their inherent Righteousness against the Testimony of the Holy Scripture and the Sacred Gospel of Iesus Christ and the bright shining Light of Grace yea and against their own Salvation It remains in the next place that we should hear what those Men on the other side answer and oppose to the Arguments and most approved Reasons manag'd not only by us but by St. Paul and with what Cavillings and fraudulent Devices they darken and baffle the clear meaning of the
them that are justified but these things have no union with Faith in the concernment of Iustification And first as touching Repentance abundance hath been said before for seeing Repentance is nothing but a mourning for sins committed it may indeed of it self afflict the guilty person and fit him for receiving of Grace but it cannot obtain a pardon for the sins committed before a Secular Iudge and much less before the Iudgment Seat of God For that is the Office of Faith which as it only obtains a pardon so it obtains it for none but them that are afflicted and repent and believe in Christ. For for their sakes chiefly Christ was sent by his Father into this World that he may help all them that being in distress flie to him by Faith In which three things are to be considered and placed each of them in their own bounds and territories First that we may see what the Mediatour does what Faith performs what sorrow for sin produces All our Salvation flows from the Mediatour as from a Spring and Fountain But if you ask how or for what cause he saves I answer by Faith And if you ask whom he saves I answer those that repent of their wickedness or whom he draws unto himself by an inward Call Doth the Lord then save those for their Repentance No verily Suppose a man is greatly grieved at the remembrance of his by-past life but yet comes not to Christ will grief for his sins save him No surely Yea who can come to Christ unless he first hear and understand who he is from whom Salvation must be sought Now it is Faith and not Repentance that does this For it is not the grief and sorrow of a broken hearted sinner but Faith that discovers a Saviour to us and guides us to him and obtains Salvation from him Yea which is Salvation to them that are in distress for thus it is written This is the will of God That every one that seeth and believeth in him should have Eternal Life By which it is evident enough what should be attributed unto Repentance and what to Faith in the case of Iustification for sin is not therefore pardoned because he that sinned hath repented but because he that sinned not at all hath died for sin therefore the sinner is forgiven not for his Repentance but for Faith whereby he believes in him that died for our sins rose again for our Iustification Where Faith is joyned with Works and where it is not joyned AND hitherto we have been speaking of Repentance But as touching the Reformation of the Life in other respects though I know that nothing is more convenient than that Faith which is rightly instructed in Christ should have Charity and other Offices of Piety suitable to the Christian Profession joyned with it Yet it must be considered what manner of Union this is and of how large an extent for Faith and Charity have that wherein they are of necessity united And they have that also wherein they must of necessity be separated Where we deal with God about Salvation Iustification and the Expiation of sins here Faith only without Works is powerful and overcomes But in dealings with men in the Lives of the Iustified in popular duties in the exercise of Vertue there is a very near Union between Faith and Vertue of which the one cannot consist without the other Therefore these things should be measured by their own bounds that we may attribute unto Faith its due and to Works their due and unto both that which is meet For as that poisonous Errour of Eunomius should be abhorred who is reported to have been so great an Enemy to godly works that he thought it was not a matter of any concernment how any man led his life So also great care should be taken lest in shunning the Soylla of Eunomius we fall upon the other Carybdis of the Papists which is no less pernicious being mis-led by the Popish Doctors who make such a confused Union between Faith and Works that neither Faith without Works nor Works without Faith procure Iustification But this Union is easily confuted by the Authority of Scripture For if Faith only doth not bring Believers into a state of Salvation unless it be joyned with great Holiness of life why did not Christ joyn these together when he said simply He that believeth in me hath Eternal Life Why did not Peter joyn them together when according to the Testimonies of the Prophets he proclaimed remission of sins to all that believed in his Name Why did not Paul joyn them together when instructing the Iaylor in the Faith he said unto him Believe in the Lord Iesus and thou shalt be saved and thy house Many other such like things may be mentioned The History of the Galatians is well known who being led aside by the false Apostles did not wholly cast off Christ nor excluded Faith in Christ but they would have had the good Works of Believers joyned with Faith in the Article of Iustification before God unto Eternal Life for which cause how angry the Apostle was at them his Epistle bears witness But here again a place of St. Paul out of the same Epistle is objected where writing to the Galatians he speaks of Faith that works by Charity From hence the Tridentine Divines infer a necessary connexion between Faith and Charity so that Faith without Charity like matter without form avails nothing to the perfection of Righteousness And they say of Charity which they call Righteousness inherent in us That it is so impossible that it should be separated from Faith in the concernment of Iustification that they assert it only to be the formal cause of our Iustification But it is not difficult to answer to this place of Paul For in that Epistle the Apostle endeavours with great diligence to call back his Galatians to the Righteousness of Faith from which they had swerved In the mean while lest they should be seduced by a counterfeit Faith by these words he intimates what Faith it is that he speaks of Not such a Faith as is idle and dead without Works but which worketh by Love And in this sense we deny not that Faith is not alone But what consequence is that Lively Faith is not alone without Charity It is a lively Faith that justifies Therefore in Iustifying Faith is not alone without Charity This Argument is disproved in the Schools of Logicians for it is a Sophism a non causa ut causa Therefore I answer to the Major The Faith that is lively is not alone without Charity That is true in working but not in justifying Therefore as touching the Cause and Office of Iustifying this is not the consequence thereof Therefore in Iustifying Faith is not alone without Charity But as for the the Minor though Faith that justifies is called lively in respect of good Works yet it doth not justifie in respect
of those Works but only upon the account of its Object which because Faith only without Charity embraces therefore Faith only without Charity receives from thence the power of Iustifying If all things that any way are or are done together should be joyned in one and the same Office it would come to pass that he that hath Feet Eyes and Ears because he hath not these Members alone therefore he should be said to go not with-his Feet only but to walk with his Eyes and see with his Ears as hath been formerly demonstrated Iust so the case is in Faith Charity and other Vertues Which tho' being infused by Grace they inhere in the same subject yet each one of them are distinguished by their peculiar Offices Therefore if it be asked concerning the Office of Iustification What it is that reconciles us to God and procures Eternal Life for us I answer it is Faith and that only If you ask how I answer by Christ the Mediatour Again if you ask what manner of Faith that is I answer It is not an idle or dead Faith but lively and active But if you would know by what marks you distinguish between a true Faith and that which is counterfeit St. Paul answers that question The Faith that is true works by Love What where and How Faith worketh by Charity BUT here there are several things that need to be explained as what Faith works where and after what manner it works for Faith doth not act every where after one and the same manner It acts one way with men and another way with God It is true that it works by Love as Paul says but it must be understood in respect of men not in respect of God Neither doth Faith perform the same in both respects nor after the same manner for with men it works by Love but with God it works not by Love but by Christ only by whom it is admirable to consider what and how great things Faith performs It obtains grants of Petitions pardon of sins it reconciles justifies wrestles overcomes reigns and triumphs Faith only does these things not with men but with God not working by Charity but by Christ our Lord. Therefore Faith works one thing by Christ and another thing by Charity By Christ it obtains Salvation by Charity it performs Obedience to the Law Doth it perform perfect Obedience No. Doth it then perform imperfect Obedience But that is not sufficient to procure Righteousness and Salvation And where then is that excellent integrity of Life Where is Charity 's meritorious efficacy to purchase Salvation Where is the Assertion of the Tridentine Decree which only attributes the beginning of Iustification to Faith but makes the formal cause thereof to be Charity or New Obedience which they call Righteousness inherent in us whereby we are not only accounted righteous but are both called and also really are righteous before God adding also a dreadful Curse if any dare be of another Iudgment Which manner of Doctrine if it be admitted it utterly disannuls the sacred Scripture and overturns all the foundation of our Religion For if this be the condition of our Salvation that it must rely upon good deeds and not free Imputation only Where then is that Righteousness which is attributed unto Faith so often Preached by Paul Where is the difference between the Law and the Gospel which unless it be carefully observed we may be as blind as to the knowledge of the Scripture as Moles and Batts at Noon-day Moreover where is that opposition mentioned by Paul between the Righteousness of the Law and of Faith between Grace and Debt Where is glorying in Works excluded Where is Faith accounted to Abraham for Righteousness And how will the Tridentine Decrees agree with that which Paul says Faith is accounted for Righteousness not to him that Works but to him that believes in him who justifies the ungodly And where be those remarkable exceptive and exclusive Particles whereby our Salvation is wholly cut off from Works and ascribed unto Imputation Moreover where are all those sweet Promises if those Men rob us of the Assurance of Salvation and God's Imputation Let us now proceed to the Prophets that if any are less moved with the Authority and writings of the Apostles if they have any thing to say for themselves they may either Answer the evident Testimonies of the Prophets or yield unto them And first that I may begin at this I ask of them that deny that it is sufficient to assurance of Iustification that Christ hath fulfilled all Righteousness for us unless thereunto be added also a Righteousness implanted and inherent in us being formed in us of his free Bounty which makes us formally Righteous satisfies the Law and merits Life Which if it be so I ask of them Whether any Man will be assured that he is in a state of Salvation in this Life If they deny it where then is that Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost whereof there is so frequent mention in the writings of the Prophets and Apostles Where is that frequent singing of Praise in the Books of the Prophets Where is that Everlasting Ioy and Gladness which Isaiah the Prophet foretels shall be upon the head of those who being redeemed by the Lord shall come into Sion with Praise Where is that way so straight that Fools cannot err therein Where is that Voice of the Prophet preaching Peace and proclaiming Glad tidings and comforting his own People which taking away all Fear Grief and Sighing confirms fearful and affrighted Consciences strengthens weak Kness and feeble Hands yea provokes the very Beasts of the Field and the Ostriches to the Exercise of glorifying God If yet we waver in doubtful and uncertain fears and have no firm hope of Salvation but in that Righteousness which is inherent in our selves according to the Pseudocatholick Opinion of the Church of Rome where then is that fiducial reliance where is that Holy Courage concerning which Ieremiah the Prophet foretold In those days Iudah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely And again to the same purpose Ezekiel foretelling of the future Peace of the Church And I will make with them a Covenant of Peace And they that dwell in the VVilderness shall sleep safely in the woods and shall be in their own Land without fear And presently he subjoins But they shall dwell safely without any fear Hereunto belongs the encouragement that Isaiah gives the People of the Messiah commanding them not to be afraid Fear not saith he for I am with thee And again Fear not for I have redeemed thee And again Fear not my Servant Iacob c. Hereunto also agree the Words of Zephaniah Prophesying by the same Spirit Be glad O Daughter of Sion and be joyful O Israel and rejoice with all thy Heart O Daughter of Ierusalem The Loard hath taken away thy Iudgment he hath turned away thy Enemies The
and Sinners insa different account Sinners in our selves Righteous in Christ. Isaiah 9. Whole Christ is ours Christ bears our publick person before the Father What is our Righteousness according to Paul Osor. de just lib. 2. lib. 7. p. 187. lib. 9. p. 228. Osor. de just lib. 2. lib. 7. p. 187. lib. 9. p. 228. God commands not any thing which cannot be observed by men according to the opinion of Osorius it is no fault in God if he command those things which cannot be kept by us Rom. 3. There had been no need for God to Iustifie us by Faith if we could be justified by works de justit lib. 4. pag. 90. Pag. 105. Preparation for Righteonsness Mat. 5. Whatsoever things the law 〈◊〉 it saith to those that are in the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the World may be guilty before God R. 3. Rev. 15. 4. The Ecclesiastical Hymn thou only are holy Hierom. ad Ctesiphontem Dial. 2. Aug. in Io. Hom. 49. Rom. 3. Rom. 9. Gal. 2. 1 Cor. 1. Rom. 4. Rom. 11. Hab. 2. Rom. 4. Gal. 3. 2 Tim. 1. Ephes. 2. Tit. 3. Rom. 11. Phil. 3. Rom. 4. Rom. 9. Concil Trident Sess. 6. A definition of rig hteousness according to the Iesuits of Colonia Censur Coloniensis 186 frat Alpbonsus Philip 4. p. 34. Argum. ex Topicis Aristot. 1 Cor. 1. 2 Cor. 5. Rom. 4. 3. Answer to the Iesuitical quibbles Men judge by qualities but God judgeth otherwise 2 Cor. 5. Prov. cap. 8. Aug. ad Boniface lib. 3. cap. 7. Bernard in Dominic Serm. 3. By what Righteousness they are justified before God by Christs or our own Aug. in Psal. 31. Christ is wholly ours with all his good things As Christ was made sin so we are made righteous But Christ was not made sin by inherent sin Therefore we also are not made righteous by inherent rightcousness The Righteousness of Faith Internal and inherent righteousness whereby we are justified according to the Gospel Faith is a most internal and inherent righteousness This is the work of God that ye should believe in him whom he hath sent Iohn 6. Augustine Iohn 3. So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that all that believe in him c. Rom. 8. 1 Cor. 1. A rule of Law that which a Man doth by another he seems to have done by himself A comparison of Adam and Christ. The former Adam a Type of the second Rom. 5. As Evil was 〈◊〉 ed by the Sin of one so good is propagated by the Iustification of one by the Disobedience of one many were made Sinners Rom. 5. As many dyed by the Sin of one so by the grace of one many are justified Rom. 5. After what manner the sin of one is imputed unto all in like manner also the Righteonsness of one is imputed to all Otherways there would be no resemblance between Christ and Adam Adam a Type of Christ. Wherein the similitude of Adam and Christ consists A Imitation of Life Christ to be seen in Adam The severity of the Iudgment of God in Adam again the excellency of Mercy in Christ. The Type is compared with the Archetype Death took its beginning of making havock from the Sin of one not of many The heaviness of Iustice was again made amends for and over-balanced by as great mercy 2 Cor. 5. Isaiah 53. The Blood of Redemption encountering with Righteousness yet not violating Righteousness but Redeeming it An Answer The singular providence of the Eternal God in governing the business of our Redemption Rom. 6. Christ Iustifies Sinners but what Sinners Oso dejust lib. 7. The whole nature of our Salvation consists in nothing else but in the imitation of Christ and expressing a resemblance of him according to Osorius In what respect the similitude of Christ and Adam agrees Death and Sin from Adam Osor. de just lib. 7. p. 179. Osorius is opposed to Osorius Only by being propagated from Adam we perish And why are we not as well saved by being born again from Christ Object Osor. pag 180. Answer The imitation of Christ is very necessary for all Matt. 11. Charitv the bond of perfection Colos. 3. How no sign of Charity appears in the Roman Tyranny The Laws of the Popes are written with blood 1 Cor. 15. 1 Pet. 2. The promises of God are not tyed to the imitation ofChrist but to Faith A comparison of the First and Second Adam Christ the external cause of justification Faith in Christ the Internal Effects causes De just lib. 7. pag. 186. An argument from like things Luk. 18. Baptism a Sacrament of Faith Galat. 3. what Faith in Christ performs according to Paul Galas 3. Chrysostom Oso de just lib. 7. de just 1. 9. p. 232. de just 1. 6. p. 148. Iames. 2. Mat. 12. What the renewing of the Holy Ghost makes in us Oso de just lib. 9. P. 233. De just lib. 9. P. 234. Rom. 5. Ephes. 3. Rom. 4. De just lib. 9. pag. 234. We are beholden to the grace of God for all benefits and what that is which his singular favour towards us is ehiefly seen Luke 12. Daniel 7. Romans 5. Romans 4. Titus 3. Romans 8. On what foundation doth the free Promise of God chiefly stand Theassurance of confidence and persuasion from the free promise of God Osor. de just 1. 9. pag. 234. Ibid. p. 233. Lib. 9. p. 232. Two Paradoxes of Osorius both of which are false Ier. 31. 〈◊〉 11. Osor. l. 9. No man denies that the works of new Obedience proceed from the fountain of Divine Grace and the Merits of Christ. Every faithful man that is truly born again in Christ is a Law to himself or ought so to be Works of Faith Osor. de Iust. lib. 3. p. 71. Ier. 32. Ezek. 11. How far the Spirit of renovation promised and given by God reaches Ier. 31. Ezek. 36. Deut. 30. Hier. cont Pelag. Dial. 1. A twofold perfection or a twofold righteousness according to Hierome August cont duas Epistolas Pela l. 3. cap. 8. A twofold sort of Obedience according to Augustine Aug. de peccat merit remiss lib. 2. cap. 15. Aug. de peccat merit remis lib. 1. cap. 7. Aug. ad Bonifac lib. 3. cap. 7. Hierom. Advers pelag lib. 1. Hierom. ibid. Prover 18. Hierom. ad Ctesiphontem Deut. 30. I will Circumcise the Foreskin of thy Heart that thou mayst love me with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul Pelagianism August of the Perfection of Righteousness By whom Righteousness is obtained When Perfection is attained Aug. of the Spirit and Letter Aug ad Bonifac. lib. 3. cap. 7. Begun Obdience Imputation of Righteousness according to Augustine Augustine to Hierom. Epist. 29. Cpprian cited by Augustine Hierom. adversus Pelagi Ambros. lib. 10. Epist. 84. Aug. lib. 10. Epist. 84. Bernard super Cantic Serm. 50. Why God commanded things impossible Hieron Augustin Cyprian Orig. hom 21. on 〈◊〉 Cyprian de