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
God through the Redemption which is in Christ Iesus whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood Is not this evident in the writings of Paul c. And yet Vega not being contented with this Gospel nor deterred by the Curse which the Apostle denounced hath arrived at so great an impudence that he takes upon him to contradict what the Apostle hath confirmed with so great Authority The Apostle says freely without Works but he says freely but not without Works but how is it freely if not without Works Paul says the Righteousness of God by the Faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe But what says Vega and Hosius the enemy of Paul This universal Term all saith he is not here by the Apostle applied to every one of the kind but to every kind of every one So that the meaning is this Righteousness is communicated to them that believe whether they are Iews or Gentiles Thus said Vega. O Saint Paul What Ignorance was this in thee or unskilfulness of Speech Thou mightst learn of Vega to speak more curiously and to polish thy Stile according to the elegancy of the Roman Court after this manner The Righteousness of God by the Faith of Iesus Christ unto all and not only all but also unto every one and upon every one present and to come that believe so that thereby you might comprehend not only the kinds of every one but also every species of the kinds and every individual of the Species But that I may answer seriously to the vain-glorious Spaniard It was your Duty O Vega to correct your Spirit of Errour by the divinely inspired Words of Paul and not to pride your self in such vain and empty Notions For who sees not the clear and perspicuous simplicity of this Speech of Paul whereby he proclaims a common Interest in Eternal Life and Righteousness not only to Iews and Gentiles in the general but to every one of them in particular whether they be Iews or Gentiles that believe in Christ Unless the Apostle had together with the universal Term set down the proper Mark of Distinction that is the peculiar Condition of attaining to Righteousness you might have some colour of Reason for what you pretend As for Example when the Scripture speaks thus They shall be all taught of God God would have all Men to be saved and come to the Knowledge of the Truth in such a Case a Man may interpret the universal Term. As Augustine did in such a manner as you speak of To wit that it is not every one of all but some particular Persons of all kind of Men and Nations that attain unto the Knowledge of the Truth but the Case is otherways in this Expression of Paul where the Apostle together with the universal Term adds also a peculiar and proper mark of Distinction So that he doth not only make the Righteousness of God common to all in the general but also expresly sets down a certain manner whereby all do attain unto it and to whom it peculiarly belongs in these Words By the Faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe Whence of necessity it follows that every Mans Righteousness consists in his believing in Christ by Faith unfeigned and embracing of him according to the saying of the Prophet The just shall live by Faith But let us again hear what the Prating Sophister hath to say for himself But whereas saith he the Iust shall live by Faith and God is said to justifie Man by Faith it doth not therefore follow by consequence that Works are not necessary for it is one thing to live by Faith and another thing to live by Faith only One thing to be justified by Faith and another thing to be justified by Faith only and if these Words Faith only are sometimes found in the Books of Catholick Doctors by the Word only good Works are not excluded but all other Sects and Ways to Salvation except Faith only and the Christian Religion Thus said Vega. To whom that I may answer First whereas he inferrs that good Works are not necessary because the Iust live by Faith he may as reasonably gather Thistles from the Vine for this is no good consequence The Iust shall live by Faith therefore Works are not necessary Which we also with Paul do notwithstanding account to be necessary And in the next place whereas he says that it is one thing to be justified by Faith and another thing to be justified by Faith only Though we grant this to be true yet I see no great difference between these two Expressions To be justified by Faith without Works and to be justified by Faith only Thirdly Whereas he Cavils about the Word Only what it excludes and what it excludes not in the Books of the Catholicks we do not trouble our selves much about that but this is manifest in the Writings of Paul that Works themselves though otherways they are very excellent and also necessary upon other accounts yet in this free Gift of Evangelical Iustification they are excluded without all Controversie Though that also is an untruth which he asserts of the Books of the Catholicks For Basil that I may produce one of them instead of a great many expresses the same in manifest Words taking away from every Man all occasion of glorying in his own Righteousness and testifies that each one of us is justified by Faith in Christ only And therefore he presently produces the Example of Paul to confirm the same and Paul Glories saith he in the Contempt of his own Righteousness I may also add the VVords of the same Basil upon the 32. Psalm where giving a Description of a perfect Man he says he is such a one as puts no trust in his own good deeds but hath his whole hope and reliance on the Mercy of God alone I think it is not amiss to joyn unto Basil his intimate Friend Nazianzen who assents and subscribes to the words of Basil on this manner Faith only is our Righteousness But let us proceed unto the remaining Testimonies of Paul For as I have said before Vega with his Associates heaps together eight Assertions for Iustifying Faith out of Paul But the other five Assertions of the Apostle together with the Answers of the Adversaries do follow in this order 3 Assertion Rom. 4. If Abraham was justified by the Works of the Law he hath whereof to glory but not before God For what says the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness To him that worketh the Reward is not reckoned according to Grace but according to Debt But to him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifies the ungodly Faith is imputed unto him for Righteousness As David also declareth the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth Righteousness without Works And likewise Rom. 11. If it is
after the spirit And to this purpose our Lord himself speaks though not in the same words Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven For what is it to do the Will of the Father but as Paul expresses it to walk not after the flesh but after the spirit In which place a perfect obedience to the whole Law is not required to Iustification but the meaning of our Lord's words is this that he requires a Faith which is not counterfeit nor hypocritical but upright and sincere which doth not only outwardly and with the mouth make mention of the name of the Lord or the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord as the Pharisees and Hypocrites did of old but heartily endeavours to walk in the fear of God and though it cannot perform all things commanded in the Law yet it strives as much as in it lies to shun all things that are contrary to the Will of God that at least sin may not have the dominion if it cannot be wholly excluded or rooted out Thus I understand these words of Christ To do the Will of his Father which is in Heaven For God requires us to do his Will but does not exact a compleat perfection of Obedience in this Mortal Life On the contrary he that makes an outward shew of Faith and an external profession of the Name of Christ whilst he takes no care to lead a Life suitable to his profession but runs on in sins against his Conscience it is certain that such a Faith according to the saying of Christ profits him nothing though he boast in the Name of the Lord as much as he will not that Faith without Works doth not justifie before God provided it be true and not counterfeit that is if it is received into a heart truly humbled as seed into good ground But because that Faith which doth not provoke unto Love and good Works though it may be boasted of at a high rate yet in reality it is no Faith at all but only a shadow and false resemblance of Faith And the same Answer may serve for all their Arguments which they have wrested out of the Sermons of Christ in the Gospel to defend their Doctrine of Iustification by Works Of which sort are these next following Argument Matth. 7. Many shall say to me in that day Lord we have prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name we have cast out Devils and in thy Name we have done many mighty works Then shall I profess unto them I know you not depart from me ye that work iniquity From these words they draw this Argument Ce. Whosoever is rejected of Christ is not justified La. Every one that works iniquity though he hath the Faith of Miracles is rejected of Christ. Rent Therefore he that works iniquity tho' he hath Faith he is not justified Or thus We are approved by Christ after the same manner that we are justified By Works ofRighteousness we are approved of Christ. Therefore by Works of Righteousness we are justified Answer I answer to the first The Minor must be understood with a distinction He that works iniquity is taken two manner of ways in Scripture Sometimes godly men work iniquity and likewise wicked men for both of them sin but they differ in their manner of working iniquity Godly men commit many things which they hate and which are truly sins But because they delight not in them in their inner man but in their love to Christ they endeavour with all their might to return unto God by Repentance God doth not impute their sins to them wherefore those sins that are done away by remission are not reckoned for sins But the case is far otherways in those that are wholly bent upon the fulfilling of the lusts of the flesh and continue in them with delight and satisfaction And unto them belongs that sentence of Christ whereby he commands all that work iniquity to depart from him As touching the second Argument it is a fallacy a non causa pro causa as we call it if our Vertues were of sufficient efficacy to merit the Grace of God there would be some ground for that which they infer Now our Works being such as have always need of Mercy and never satisfie the Law of God nor bring Peace to the Conscience nor support us under the stroke of Death or the weight of Iudgment How evidently doth it hence appear what we should answer to this Argument Good Works are pleasing to God I grant their assumption But first the person must please God and be reconciled to him that so his works may please and be acceptable for the person being once reconciled the works from thence derive their dignity I acknowledge therefore that works of Piety are pleasing to God but yet only as they are performed by persons reconciled and justified But if the manner how they that do good works are reconciled be enquired into they do not obtain Reconciliation by works but before all merits of works for works go not before him that is to be justified as a cause thereof but always as an effect follow him that is justified As fruits if they be good they receive their goodness from the Tree whence they grow but they are not the cause why the Tree is good So in like manner we grant with Augustine that the righteous have great merits But it comes not from their merits but from another caufe that they are righteous So Iacob was beloved of God before he had done either good or evil What did David before he was anointed King to deserve so great a dignity The same may be said of Abraham of whom we read in sacred Records how great things were promised to him when first he was called away from his Fathers house But the Scripture gives us no account of any merits of his as if thereby he had Right unto so great preferments What shall I say of Adam did he not first lose Paradise before he received the promise of recovery And God had respect unto the Sacrifice of Abel What is your Opinion concerning this Did the worth of his Oblation procure him this favour Or shall we say there was some other thing that made his person acceptable to God before he had any regard to his Sacrifice If you cast your Eyes about upon all the Histories of the holy Scripture and take a view of all the Generations of the People of Israel when God in his great goodness did bear with all the provocations of that People can you discern any thing in their works that merited so great long-suffering and patience or should we say that it was only for the sake of Christ that was to be born of that Nation In like manner it may be said of the Church which though it hath been
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
Case of a Soul Distressed with the guilt of Sin and relieved by a discovery of forgiveness with God is at large Discoursed The Grace and Duty of being Spiritually Minded declared and practically improved A Declaration of the glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ God and Man Of Temptation the Nature Power the danger of entring into it means of preventing that Danger A Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity these five by Dr. Iohn Owen A Body of practical Divinity consisting of above 176 Sermons on the lesser Catechism composed by the Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster with a Supplement of some Sermons on several Texts of Scripture by Tho. Watson formerly Minister of St. Stephens Walbrook Printed from his own hand-writing recommended by several Ministers to Masters of Families and others The Confirming Work of Religion Or its Great Things made plain by their Primary Evidences and Demonstrations Whereby the meanest in the Church may soon be made able to render a Rational account of their Faith Written by R. Fleming Author of the Fulfilling of the Scriptures The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification in sundry practical Directions suited to the Case of those who labour under the guilt and power of indwelling Sin To which is added a Sermon of Iustification By Mr. Walter Marshal late Preacher of the Gospel The Confession of Faith together with the larger and smaller Catechisms by the Reverend Assembly of Divines then sitting at Westminster presented to both Houses of Parliament Again published with Scriptures at large and the Emphasis of the Scriptures in a different Character An Earnest Call to Family-Religion or a Discourse concerning Family-worship being the substance of eighteen Sermons preached by Samuel Slater M. A. Minister of the Gospel The Sure Mercies of David Or a Second Part of Heart-treasure Wherein is contained the summ and substance of Gospel-mercies purchased by Christ and Promised in the Covenant of Grace together with the several ways how they are made sure to all the Heirs of Promise and how they are to be improved for the Saints Fort and Defence Settlement and Incouragement in shaking and back-sliding times By O. Heywood OF Free Iustification by Christ. In Reading your Books Hierom Osorius concerning Righteousness though I had not leisure accurately to trace every particular on which you have enlarged yet by what I have here and there collected I think I do well enough perceive whereat you drive what you design and what you endeavour For according to my apprehension you are endeavouring not to strike at some part of Christian Doctrine of smaller concernment but to cut the very Throat and extinguish the Breath and Spirit of the Gospel and to besiege the whole state of our Felicity and the Castle and chief City of Christian Liberty and to pluck up from the very Foundation all the Munitions of Peace and Life For what other thing dost thou in all these ten Books whereby thou snatchest away out of the Hands Studies Minds and Consciences of Men and out of the Earth as the Sun out of the World that most glorious Light of our Free Iustification purchased by the great bounty of Christ and confirmed by the Eternal Covenant of God Which being taken away I see not what thou leavest remaining to us but Cimmerian and Osorian Darkness in which we may grope like blind Moles Which endeavours of thine though of themselves being vain and frivolous there is no great cause why they should be feared in their opposition against the invincible force of Divine Truth yet because they strive to with-hold from us that which is most excellent in all Religion therefore I thought it was necessary to write these things unto thee not being provoked by any Enmity or Hatred against thy Person that I might vex thee but that I might admonish thee both friendly and freely and so much the more freely in how much greater danger I see thou art entangled unless thou return back and endeavour to walk more uprightly according to the Gospel of Christ. For what think you Sir That by your deeds performed as well as can be imagined and by the steps of your vertues you can lay for your self a passage into the Kingdom of God Or think you that any man living in this slippery condition of Nature can root out all his Lusts and utterly cut off all their enticements and so contain himself within the bounds of his duty that he can equalize those habitations of Eternal Glory with a proportionable dignity of Righteousness or dare promise them to himself upon such an account unless the bounty of God had freely put this honour upon us O be not of such an opinion This is not the way to Heaven Either you must change your mind or lay down this hope Howbeit this opinion seems not to be yours only but common to you with many to wit the late School-Divines especially those who have a greater veneration for the authority of the Pope than the Writings of the Apostles who being all infected with the same contagion of error do boldly profess the same that you affirm But yet all of them do not proceed in the same manner and method Those do so frame their notions that all men may understand they are the professed Enemies of Divine Grace and our Free Iustification in Christ which they hiss out of the Schools and openly anathamatize Your arguings are somewhat different though you have undertaken obstinately to maintain the same thing that they do but you hide the same venom with a more subtile artifice so that it insinuates more easily and lies less open to rebuke For I see you write Books concerning Righteousness and those not a few nor unpolished When I look on the argument I see it is honourable and plausible When I look into your manner of Speech your painted eloquence and laudatory amplifications wherewith you adorn the Glory Loveliness and Beauty of Righteousness with a Tragedian-like sublimity of style I confess this is not unworthy of praise For who should not deservedly praise him whom he sees so inflamed with the praises of Righteousness But if any man look more inwardly and consider with himself according to right reason with what mind for what end for what pretence and with what arguments you maintain those parts of righteousness so much praised and compare them with the Gospel of Christ he will be forced to acknowledge that you are defective in many things If you will permit me briefly to give my opinion of the whole frame of this work though you have little regard to what my censure is yet if you will allow me to speak freely to you as becomes me I will do it according to my duty and I will so do it that you your self may perceive that there was nothing less in my design in writing to you than a perverse inclination to find fault with other mens writings And thus I judge you have so handled
this subject matter that you appear to be a Philosopher Platonick enough and no bad Ciceronian Orator but not a very Evangelical Divine I can assure you nor skilful enough to plead the cause of Christian Righteousness First As touching the Title of the Book concerning Righteousness I find nothing blame-worthy Though the frailty of our Nature might persuade you rather to discourse some thing to us of Mercy Yet seeing you chuse rather to discourse Philosophically of righteousness you are not therein unworthy of your own praise For being about to treat of righteousness you have undertaken a very honourable subject and I doubt too weighty for your Shoulders to bear and a work indeed very difficult and excellent For what is more excellent than righteousness in the whole nature of Divine and Humane things Which seeing it comprehends within its circumference all kinds of vertues the whole praise of Piety and not only the highest perfection of the Law but also the perfect Image of God indeed it may be found in Heaven but on Earth it cannot be found when you have said all you can Wherefore I am ready the more to wonder and consider with my self what secret design you had in your mind that you have composed Books so accurately exquisite concerning righteousness If it was that by the Trumpet of your commendation you might make it more acceptable to us you have therein lighted on a matter suitable to your wit and large enough for setting forth the riches of your Eloquence that I may confess the truth to you But I wonder for what purpose or end you did that will you say that men may the more evidently behold the beauty of righteousness and admire it the more But this hath been formerly attempted by Plato and many Academicks and Peripateticks and that with no bad success And who is so void of all natural sense but though he is not himself endued with the excellency of righteousness yet he apprehends in his mind the Divine brightness thereof and greatly admires it and wishes for it with all his heart If wishes in this case could do any good Inherent Righteousness unto that perfection which Osorius describes can no where be found in this Nature AND I could wish that the Integrity of Nature wherein we were of old Created had continued unto the compleat exactness of all righteousness But now in this ruinated and disabled nature why do you seek after that which we have lost rather bring forth something if you can whereby we may make up the loss What can it profit a man already dead to know the danger whereby he perished Verily there is more need of a medicine if you have any by which you may either comfort him being destroyed or restore him to the Life that was lost Yea this is the thing say you which I endeavour in these Books disputing of righteousness For righteousness as you say is the only remedy for restoring Life and regaining Health Yea this is the very thing Osorius that I chiefly find fault with in these Books not because you write of righteousness for I commend the argument in which you are exercised I commend also your praises of righteousness which are high and copious righteousness cannot be praised enough by any Man-But there is another thing for which all good Men should be angry with you What that is if you please I will tell you freely and openly for in these Books you represent unto us a spectacle not very much differing from that which Origenes relates of Celsus and Antipho who though they did write very contrary to truth yet they recommended those very Books that were against the Truth with the title of a true saying After which manner you do in a case not very unlike it whilest you write indeed concerning righteousness but at such a rate that nothing can be said more maliciously against true righteousness A twofold and different Account of Doctrine one of the Law and another of the Gospel FOR as there is a twofold manner of Covenant so also there is of righteousness proposed in the Scriptures The one consists in precepts and works under the weight whereof we all of necessity fall down to destruction The other is that of the Gospel which is safe-guarded not by works not by observance of the Law not by any peformance of duties on our side but by the sure and only Faith of Christ the Son of God Verily whosoever rejecting the righteousness of Christ whereof I speak leads us aside unto any other manner of righteousness I say that he pleads not for righteousness but against it and doth not undertake the defence of the Law of God but is a professed Enemy of the Grace of Christ and his Cross and therefore doth not open but wholly shuts up all passages to true Salvation and all Gates and Doors of Divine Grace For I beseech you if we are willing to confess the truth with the Sacred Scripture what is it else in which all the fountains and causes of our destruction are contained unto which as the principal head and spring we may attribute all our calamity but this very manner of righteousness placed in God and his Law by whose infinite immensity not only our faults but also all the Poizes of our righteousness are weighed down to the destruction of damnation If there is nothing but the righteousness of Works that may help our too scanty and short Obedience But perhaps these things that have been said hitherto are enough concerning the Title of the Book By which your prudence may lead you easily to suppose what should be judged of the rest of the Work In which when I contemplate the external form and countenance of the Workmanship verily I see that it is not without beauty nor unworthy to be looked upon when I number the Books themselves I take notice they are both many and large enough When I look on the Words and Pages I see whole Rivers and Sands that cannot be numbred but when I turn to the things themselves when I consider the Reasons and force of Arguments when I compare the Words and Sayings of the Scriptures at a strange rate quoted with the true sense of Scriptures not rightly understood by you and also when I take notice of the end and scope of the whole disputation I am not willing at present to discover to you what I find here lest in what I say I should seem to exceed the bounds of that modesty which here I profess But yet that I may say something for the sake of Truth to which I am more obliged because of necessity something must be said I will speak but in a few words If any other Man had Published these Books concerning Righteousness amongst the common People except your self I should say to him openly and to his face that no Man could ever have brought in a greater plague into the Doctrine
unreasonable so to do as if a man disputing concerning Osorius should thus conclude that because he hath no power of governing in the Kings Chamber therefore he hath nothing he can do at home amongst his own family Or because he is not at all excellent in military vertue to gain a victory that therefore he hath no faculty or dexterity in managing the affairs of his own business Luther separates charity from faith and the Law from the Gospel and does it not without cause But it must be considered where in what place and for what cause he does it Not to cause the godly works of good men to be despised nor to discourage the exercise thereof but that the power of justifying should not be attributed to the performance of them Not that faith should not work by love before Men but that it should not work before God For it is one thing to work before Men and another thing to work before God Therefore one and the same faith acteth both ways but one way before God and another way before men for before men it works by love that it may perform obedience to the will of God and be serviceable for the benefit of our Neighbour but before God it works not by any love but by Christ only that it may obtain the pardon of sins and eternal life By which you see what is the difference between faith and vertue and wherein they both agree and how different the working of both is How faith is alone without works and again how the same is not alone for in the mean while Godly works are not therefore condemned because they are not admitted to the justification of life but the trusting in works is only overturned Here then a wise and suitable division should be used that things may be distinguished each by their own places and bounds lest one thing should rashly rush into the possession of another and disturb the order of its station Therefore let the praise-worthy merits of the greatest vertues have their own honour and dignity which no man withholds from them Nevertheless by their dignity they will never be so available in the presence of the Heavenly Iudge as to redeem us from our sins to satisfie Iustice to deliver us from the wrath of God and everlasting destruction to restore us that are so many ways ruinated unto grace and life to unite us as Sons and Heirs to God and to overcome Death and the World These things cost a far dearer price than that we should ever be able to pay so many and so great debts by any works or merits or means of our own For so great is the severity of Iustice that there can be no reconciliation unless Iustice be satisfied by suffering the whole punishment that was due The wrath is so very great that there is no hope of appeasing the Father but by the price and death of the Son And again so great is the mercy that the Father grudged not to send his own Son and bestow him on the World and so to bestow him that he gives Life Eternal to them that believe in him Moreover so great is the loving kindness of the Son towards us that he grudged not for our sakes to bring upon himself this infinite load of wrath which otherways our frailty however assisted with all the help of moral vertues had never been able to sustain Whence Faith hath received its efficacy BEcause Faith alone with fixed eyes looks upon this Son and Mediator and cleaves unto him who only could bring about this Atchievement of our Redemption with the Father therefore it is that it alone hath this vertue and power of justifying not with works nor for works but only for the sake of the Mediator on whom it relies Therefore that is false and worthy to be rejected with disdain which some unhappy and wicked School-Divines affirm in discoursing of Charity to wit that it is the form of Faith and that it must not by any means be separated from faith no more than the vital Soul can be separated from the body or the essential form from matter which otherwise is a rude and unweildy Mass. In answering of whom I think there is no need of many words seeing the whole meaning and drift of Scripture if rightly understood the very end of the Law seeing Christ and the instruction of the Apostles and the whole nature of the Gospel seem to be manifestly against them and wholly to overturn that most absur'd Opinion by so many Oracles so many Signs Examples and Arguments to the contrary Now if that be form which gives subsistence to a thing how much more truly must it be said that faith is the form of charity without which all the works of charity are base and contemptible as again the form of faith is not charity but Christ only and the promise of the word But what say they are not the pious works of Charity acceptable to God being so many ways prescribed unto us and commanded by him Are not these also remunerated with plentiful fruits of Righteousness and heaped up with manifold Rewards in the Gospel I was hungry says he and ye fed me I thirsted and ye refreshed me with drink so that not so much as a cup of cold water shall want a reward when it is given in the name of Christ besides an infinite number of other things of that kind which being taken out of the Scriptures are enlarged upon to the praise of Charity Indeed no man denys that pious and holy works of Charity are greatly approved of God and it is an undoubted truth that the love of God and of our Neighbour as it comprehends the Summary of both Tables and is the greatest complement of the whole Law so it hath excellent promises annexed unto it Neither is there any Controversie between us about that But when we affirm that Charity pleases God we ask this how it pleases whether simply of it self in respect of the very work or upon the account of faith and the Mediatour and then whether the same Charity so pleases that it justifies us before God and obtains the pardon of sins and overcomes the terrours of death and sin that it may be opposed to the judgment and anger of God Moreover whether it hath the promises of Eternal Life annexed unto it If without a Mediatour and the faith of him there is nothing which can please God and it is impossible that works should please him before the person of him that worketh be reconciled it follows that Charity depends on Faith and not Faith on Charity But that it rather goes before Love and is so far from being joyned with it for justification that it also justifies Charity and makes all the works of Charity acceptable to God The matters appear more evident by Example Suppose a Iew or Turk does daily bestow great gifts upon the poor with very great cost
Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you c. These things said Augustine by which it evidently appears how our Election and Iustification purchased by Christ is perfected not by any Righteousness of Works but only by the free gift of Grace whence it is called by Paul the Election of Grace not of Righteousness to wit by this Argument What if it is by Grace saith he it is not now by Works or else grace is not grace but if it is of works then it is not grace or else work would not be work c. Which things being so it necessarily follows that the Righteousness which is wholly exercised in the Observance of Works is not rightly called Grace by Osorius Therefore take the Argument of Augustine Argument Ma. It is grace which both elects and justifies the ungodly Mi. Inherent Righteousness doth not justifie the unrighteous for if he be ungodly how is he just If he is just how shall he be called unjust Concl. Therefore righteousness is not grace otherways according to St. Paul If righteousness is of works then grace is not grace Moreover the grace of God which is his free Indulgence because it hath no place properly but where vengeance would be just neither is there any just vengeance where perfect righteousness flourishes Therefore it must be false which Osorius assumes That it is either righteousness which makes us acceptable to God and that it is grace or it is nothing But now that we may grant this to Osorius for the sake of disputing that it is perhaps possible that this observance of righteousness and glorious furniniture of most holy Vertues wherewith the divine grace adorns us receives this name being given to it by some Writers so that in some respect it is called grace But what then what relation hath this to our Controversie seeing that it is not the grace which justifies us before God but there will be need of another grace whereby that same grace may be justified For it is not a doubtful case in this place whether all that we have should be referred to the grace and bounty of God For who is so ignorant as to doubt thereof neither is it a matter of doubt whether the pious works of Christians are pleasing to God but whether Christians do so please God upon the account of their pious works that they are therefore justified that they escape wrath that being dead they revive that they put on Immortality that they are received into heavenly glory This your whole discourse contends for as if there were no other way or manner of turning away the wrath of God and purchasing eternal life but by the continual exercise of Charity and pious and holy actions And because all instruction of living well proceeds not only from the strength of our nature but from the grace of God which is 〈◊〉 by faith Therefore whatsoever you any where in reading the holy Scriptures of God meet with of the words grace and faith presently you wrest that as a most sure Testimony to confirm the Righteousness of good Works and also to the defence of Grace and Faith Which that the Reader may perceive the more evidently and also admire the sharp 〈◊〉 of this sweet Interpreter I thought good to bring forth one out of many and almost innumerable for an Example As where Paul says these Words Not by Works which we have done but according to his own mercy he saved us c. Osorius having followed his own Hosius interprets this place as if these words of the Apostle should not be otherways understood than of Works not those which are peculiarly ours but those which are performed by faith 〈◊〉 in vigour and stirred up c. We have heard Osorius Receive also Hosius who makes a noise out of the same Tridentine Oracle The works saith he which they do are good in this respect as they are Christ's Works not theirs For in as much as they are tbeirs though they seem to be good Works they conduce nothing at all to Eternal Life But in as much as they are God's and the Works of his hands so through bis bounty they are esteemed worthy both of the title of Righteousness and the reward of the Heavenly Kingdom c. Whence all their reasoning and discourse of good works is of this kind God doth not see and Crown our Works in us but his own And moreover the same Hosius adds pleading after his own manner that the reward of the Heavenly Kingdom will be given to the Works which indeed are ours but not for their dignity as they proceed from us but for Christ's sake whose handy-works they are as Aug. says For he that lives and dwells in us works them And for that cause which is more ridiculous this Phormio goes on to rail at the Lutherans as Enemies of Grace Who forsooth as he says do much more grievously detract from the Glory of Christ than they and make void his Cross and diminish the price of his blood For when they detract from the Works of the regenerate they do not derogate from their merits but from Christ whence all their dignity derives c. These things said Hosius to whom Andradius agrees in a Speech not much differing writing these words When we say that Righteousness is inherent in us we do not at all derogate Power and Authority from the Righteousness and Merits of Christ to whom we are beholden for all the Ornaments of the mind But we rather augment and amplifie them When we say he hath merited for us not a feigned and imputative Righteousness whereby those who are really wicked are esteemed just but are not so but a Righteousness that is true solid express and engraven wonderfully upon the mind c. And a little lower he said Yea indeed ye Lutherans are injurious to the Son of God the Saviour of Mankind ye I say Endeavour to lessen and depress his very gracious benefits Who say that those Sins remain which he hath washed away in the laver of his own Blood ye judge those to be defiled with pollutions whom he hath cleansed by his infinite Vertue and you endeavour to take away from us that Righteousness which he hath merited for Mankind with many labours and Blood Hitherto spake Andradius I need not here warn you Pious Reader what should be judged of the designs and discoursings of those Men and what you your self must beware of with what deceit they prevent the simplicity of the Apostolick Doctrine with what darkness they cover their own deceits what Man is so void of understanding or hath been so little exercised in the Reading of Sacred things but may with his Eyes shut discern how these things are not at all agreeable to the mind of the Apostle By which there is an easie opportunity given to judge what should be judged of this whole Generation of Men and their
enough of it self alone to merit Salvation And now what then if those are added doth then at length full and perfect Righteousness arise from these together partly from the blood of Christ and partly from renovation by new qualities which may reconcile us being justified unto God For thus Andradius with his fellow Tridentines divides Iustification which Paul attributes simply to Faith into two parts of which he affirms that the one consists in the remission of sins and the other in the obedience of the Law O the Pest of Sophistical Divinity and intolerable deceits for by this distinction it will come to pass that Christ is not the only Saviour nor a compleat one but the Spirit that bestows these qualities for if the only formal cause of our Iustification consists in nothing but only the renovation of the inner man by a willing receiving of grace and gifts what shall now remain that may be attributed to Christ the Saviour and his blood but that he should only give a Dye to our merits which being so Dyed may bring us directly into Heaven But if it be so that the Death of Christ alone doth not fully compleat our Redemption to what purpose or what way did he say it was finished when his passion was finished Or how are all things in Heaven and in Earth reconciled by the blood of his Cross as Paul witnesseth Moreover the same Paul in many places and in all his Epistles places the price and Redemption in no other thing but only in the Blood and Cross of the Son of God In whom saith he we have Redemption through his blood But how shall we say that all things are reconciled by blood if Charity and the other gifts of Renovation and Merits are the things which make us acceptable to God and claim unto themselves the greatest part of our Reconciliation What is this else but to thrust Christ down not only from his Office but also from the Throne of his glory with a gigantick fury Concerning the Reward and Merits of good Works VVHat then Are there no Merits then say they of the Righteous Is there no reward by way of Merit left in Heaven which Christ promises to be so plentiful in the Scriptures What will all that provision of inherent Righteousness avail us nothing towards Life Will so many labours and store of most Holy Works profit nothing wherewith we being Cloathed by the Holy Spirit are advanced daily more and more towards the fulness of Righteousness Augustin will answer to these things and first of Merits If you ask saith he whether there are no Merits of the Righteous There are indeed because they are Righteous but there were no Merits that they might be Righteous For they were made Righteous when they were justified c. Therefore they were not made Righteous by Merits if we believe Augustin but Merits proceed from the Iust By which you may understand that a Person is not valued by the Dignity of his Works or his Grace but that the Diginity of Merits receives its value from the Iustified Person Wherefore seeing Men are not made Righteous by Merits as Augustin witnesseth but Merits receive their Virtue and Dignity from the Iustified it easily appears from hence what should be judged of reward by way of Merit For if after the like manner it be asked whether there is no reward of the Saints in Heaven that which Augustin answers concerning the Merits of the Righteous the same do I also acknowledge concerning the reward of the Saints that the Saints want not a reward and that a large one in the Heavens For they who are Holy a Reward shall be appointed for them not for the Works themselves because they are Holy but because they that work are Holy For not Heaven but a reward in Heaven is given not to Holy Works but to the Workers But if any proceed to ask whence they are Holy I return to Augustin That they are Holy from thence whence they are also made Iust not by Works but by the Faith of the Workers As for Example if any Heathen or Pharisee who is a stranger to the Faith of Christ should do this same thing that a Christian does though he should do also greater things yet the Works would not please God And why should his Works displease Or why should the Works of a Christian please unless it were for Faith And that is it which Prophetical verity in old time foretold should come to pass that the Iust should live by Faith he says not that the Faithful should live by Righteousness By which you see that this Life whereby we live by the Faith of the Son of God is not rendered unto the Merits of Works but consists of Faith and Grace for grace and the gift of God is Etrenal Life If grace where is reward If a gift where then is Merit But what shall be said in the mean while unto Testimonies that are frequent in the Scriptures which oft-times propose great Rewards to Pious Works First it is to be considered by the very Name of Obedience Debt and Duty are implyed Now the Obedience we owe can properly deserve no grace What Man at any time commanding a hired Servant to do his Duty bestows grace or praise upon him for that which he owed upon the account of Obedience or therefore doth assign unto him any portion of his Inheritance What does the Lord himself answer to such Servants in the Gospel Say ye we are unprofitable Servants we have done that which was our duty to do c. Now then wherefore are those things called by the Name of reward which God renders unto our good Deeds I will tell you God proposes rewards verily so he does but the same God proposes Dangers and Combats The most excellent Master of the Wrestlings sees what and how great storms of Temptations must be undergone how many labours must be endured how many difficulties lye before them He sees through how many Casualties and Dangers the strait way to the Kingdom must be undertaken by them who are planted in Christ And therefore that they may not faint in their minds but proceed with the greater courage in their undertaken Warfare rewards are shewed to them as certain prizes and recompenses of Victory to stir up their minds whereby the most Gracious Father may mitigate the crosses of his own Servants and comfort them in their Sufferings with proposing hope of Rewards And hence is that frequent mention of Reward and Recompenses in the Scriptures Not that those things which the Saints suffer in this life are worthy of rewards For the sufferings of this time are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed in us But because it so seemed good to the Clemency of God to esteem those Merits of ours which are none as if they were Merits indeed and to Crown them as if they were very great
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
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
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
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
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
by grace then it is not of works and if it is of works then it is not of grace 4 Assertion Rom. 10. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and believest with thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation For the Scripture saith Whoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed There is no difference between Iew and Greek For every one that calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved 5 Assertion Acts 13. Be it known unto you Brethren that through this Man remission of sins is preached unto you that through him every one that believes may be justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses 6 Assertion Acts 10. To him all the Prophets bear witness That all that believe in him do receive through his name remission of sins 7 Assertion 1 Cor. 3. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is already laid that is Christ Iesus But if any man build upon this foundation Gold or Silver c. If any man's work is burnt he shall suffer damage but himself shall be saved yet so as through fire c. 8 Assertion The eight Argument is gathered from many Examples of those who were justified by Faith only and admitted unto Baptism As three thousand of those that believed at the Preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost were baptized Acts 2. and the Eunuch whom Philip baptized Acts 2. The Iaylor and his family whom Paul baptized Acts 16. c. By which Examples it may be rationally proved that the Apostles judged Faith to be sufficient to qualifie a man for the receiving of Baptism and therefore also for receiving of Iustification By these proofs of Scripture this Doctrine is sufficiently confirmed which attributes the Iustification of the ungodly not to Works joyned with Faith but to Faith simply without Works But because I am not now dealing with men of moderate Principles but with cunning Sophisters let us for a while bring the Apostle out of the Church into the School that he may fight hand to hand against them with their own weapons and confute them with their own Arguments The Righteousness of the Law or of Works and the Righteousness of Faith are so contrary to one another that they cannot consist together but the one of necessity makes void the other But we look for Righteousness by Faith Therefore not by the Righteousness of Works Again If according to Grace then it is not according to Debt But according to Grace it is imputed to us for Righteousness Therefore not according to Debt Again That whereunto blessedness is ascribed to the same also is ascribed Iustification Our blessedness is attributed unto the remission of sins Therefore our Iustification also is attributed to the same Another Argument If Works are necessary to Salvation then Salvation would not consist in the belief of the heart and the confession of the mouth But our Salvation consists in confessing the Lord Iesus with the mouth and believing in him with the heart Therefore Works are not necessary unto Salvation Another If Works had been conducible to justifie Abraham before God then he should have had cause of glorying before God Rom. 4. But Abraham had nothing wherein he could glory before God Therefore Works do not avail to Iustification Another By the Law of Moses no man can be justified All Doctrine of Works belongs to the Law of Moses Therefore no Salvation comes by any Doctrine of our Morals or Works Another Whosoever builds upon Christ the Foundation Gold or Hay or Stubble shall be saved either without fire or through fire Therefore Faith only without Works procures Salvation An Induction from Examples The Scriptures tell us of many that were justified and baptized without making any mention of Works On the day of Pentecost three thousand were baptized Acts 2. The Eunuch was baptized by Philip Acts 8. The Iaylor with his family Acts 16. The sinful woman whom faith saved Luke 7. The prodigal Son Luke 18. The Thief on the right hand Luke 23. The Publican Luke 18. And a multitude of others obtained Salvation without any condition of Works Therefore only Faith in Christ justifies the humble and broken hearted sinner Unto these things so very evident and clear what do the Adversaries object with what subtilties and distinctions do they defend their Popish Errour of Inherent Righteousness Be pleased to hearken though what they say is fitter for laughter and derision than instruction And first as touching the distinction that Paul makes between him that worketh and him that worketh not between Mercenary works and Iustification imputed without Works between Debt and Grace between the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of Faith let us observe how those Sophisters cloud and darken it with their vain janglings For whereas the Apostle argues on this manner from the Rule of contraries If it is of grace then it is not of works but if it be of works then it is not of grace c. If the Inheritance is by the Law then it is not of the Promise c. And again distinguishing between the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of the Gospel he so divides the one from the other that difference appears evident Of the Righteousness that comes by the Law saith the Apostle the Law it self speaks on this manner He that doth these things shall live in them But what saith he of the Righteousness that is of Faith If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and believe with thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved What is more evident than this distinction what words are more perspicuous But what is there that can be so well conceived in the mind or expressed in words but it may be wrested by the wrong Interpretations of such men as take delight to set themselves in opposition against the Truth for thus they speak Are not pious works the gifts of God Doth not Charity shed abroad in the hearts of the Saints by the Holy Ghost inflame the minds of Believers and provoke them to all things that are honest and agreeable to the Will of God Which Works of Charity when God crowns and rewards them in us they are not so much our works as his gifts for they are not our works or performed by any strength of our own but they are the works of God which we perform by his help and they should be wholly attributed to his Grace Whence also they oft-times are called in the Scriptures by the name of Divine Grace As Paul also bearing witness of himself says By the grace of God I am what I am for this grace of working not being attained unto by
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
Prov. 24. Prov. 24. 1 Iohn 1. August de Civitate Dei l. 19. c. 17. August in Ioan. Tract 4. Aug. Epist. 54. ad Macedon Andrad lib. 6. Lorichius c. 8. A brief summary of the things treated of before Iames 3. Faith only justifies sinners but whom Iames a Servant of Iesus Christ and Paul an Apostle of Iesus Christ reconciled Hosius in confut 〈◊〉 140. Canis in praefatione in Andrad 〈◊〉 Andrad Vega de justificat in Epist. Osor. de just 〈◊〉 7. Osor. ibid. 〈◊〉 2. An Answer to the Objections The consequence is denied The abuse of good things should be taken away but the things themselves should be continued Mark 16. Esa. 52. Hosius 〈◊〉 lib. 3. pag. 140. Against the assurance of Christian Salvation Objection Faith only Answer In Sermons frequent Exhortations are used to Pious Works An Answer to this Objection Ambiguity Faith only Iustifies but not all kind of Sinners The Love of Mary Magdaline Love rises from Faith not Faith from Love Charity is no cause of Iustification Psal. 34. Isa. 57. Andrad Vega. De Iustif. pag. 833. Coming to christ is believing in him Esa. 16. 9. Esa. 9. Ps. 107. Ioh. 1. If we confess our Sins he is faithful to sorgive us and the Blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all Sin Faith only justifies the Uogodly but not unless he be first humbled by Repentance A Fallacy in the terms The Life of Faith is not begotten of Charity but only is evidenced thereby A twofold Life and Operation of Faith What Faith Works with God and what with Men. A twofold Opperation of Faith After what manner doth 〈◊〉 only Iustifie 〈◊〉 Life of Faith is not Charity but Christ. Gal. 2. 1 Cor. 4. Rom. 4. Ex Andrad Viga de Iustificatione Quaest. 1 Ex Canisio aliis August we are justified by that by which we are saved Psal. 32. Rom. 4. Blessed are they whose Iniquities are forgiven c. Iacobus Cartusiensis de Authoritate Ecclesiae An. 1440. Works withoutFaith thoeminent in themselves are of no value with God yet on the contrary the Works of believers that are mean in themselves lack not their reward How the name of reward in Scriptures is attributed to works Works imputed for Merits by Grace Andr. Vega. Iohn 6. Romans 8. Matth. 25. A notion of Bucer It is one thing to do the Will of the Father and another thing to obey it without any imperfection A feigned and hypocritical Faith An Answer to the first Argument Answer to the second The strength of our Vertues is weak Works please for the sake of the perfon being first reconciled Aug. de fide operibus Iacob David Abraham Adam Abel Iames 1. Romans 2. The Argument retorted upon the Adversaries Iames 2. The words of Christ are considered Matth. 7. A good Conscience and Faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. Ex Andrad Vega. Mat. 25. A bad Consequence 1. Timoth. A good Conscience and Faith unfeigned 2. Iames. Let him ask in Faith not wavering Mat. 14. O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt 3. Ephes. 4. One God one Faith 4. Habbac The Iust lives by Faith 5. Mat. 15. O Woman great is thy Faith c. 6. Mat. 14. Luk. 17. If ye have Faith as a grain of Mustard Seed 7. Iames. 3. Faith without Works is dead c. 8. Coloss. 2. The confirmation of Faith 9. Ephes. Taking the Shield of Faith Act. 10. 2 Cor. 5. Rom. 10. The inevitable severity of Iudgment should stir us up to care watchfulness Ioh. 5. Coloss. 3. As we are Workers but as we are Believers Rom. 4. Habbac Ioh. 17. A Fillacious Sophismfrom the concrete to the abstract A Fallacy Mercy forgiving Evil deeds Imputation puttidg a great value upon finall things The Iudgment of God is twofold according to Aug. de confut Evang. lib. 2. cap. 30. The Iudgment of damnation the Iudgment of discretion The Righteousness of condemnation The Mercy of separation A twofold kind of sinners Romans 8. Who are liable to the Iudgment of Condemnation The Rule of Right Iohn 5. Luke 21. Why the day of Iudgment is called a day of Redemption The Saints shall judge the World Pit Canis in opere Catechistico de Iudicio cap. 3. Psalm 142. Iob 31. It is incident to the greatest Saints to be in donbt sometimes concerning their spiritual graces and to be afraid of their sins Romans 8. Galat. 4. Philip. 1. Apoc. 22. 2 Tim. 4. For them that love his appearance Iohn 5. Of the wedding garment Answ. Rom. 13. Galat. 3. Apoc. 7. The Parable of the Marriage and Marriage-Garment considered and explained Isa. 25. The Marriage of the Lamb of God with his Bride The Guests of the Marriage The Guests of the Marriage Feast Luk. 14. Who are the Blind and the Lame that are invited to the Marriage Rom. 9. Against the Righteousness of Works The Wedding-garment Philip. 3. Agreeableness should be every where observed according to the circumstances of places times and things The Kingdom of the Law and the Kingdom of the Gospel The difference between the Law and the Gospel What the wedding garment signifies Matthew 5. The sense of thatScripture I came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it A twofold Office of Christ the Mediatour The Errour of those who take Christ for theirLawgiver Christ is not a Law-giver but a Redeemer Christ is one way under the Law and we that are in Christ another way Andr. Vega de Iustif. pag. 741. The glorious resemblance between the Bread of the Sacrament and the Lords Passion Isa. 25. Iohn 6. Iohn 6. Iohn 2. 38. Luke 8. Matth. 4. Iohn 17. Romans 9. Repentance doth not make a Sinner perfect but evidences what he is The material of Repentance Heb. 9. How far the Promises reach and to whom they belong What Faith does and what Repentance August de 〈◊〉 gratia cap. 7. To come to Christ is to believe in him for he himself says No Man cometh to me unless it be given him of my Father Andrad Vega de Iust. 2. p. 741. A twofold necessity 1. Absolute 2. In respect of Consequencee How are good Works are necessary to Salvation Paul was a Zealous Exhorter to a Holy Life Necessity of Consequence Tit. 2. Rom. 3. Ibid. Gal. 3. Rom. 11. Tit. 3. Eph. 2. 2 Tim. 1. Rom. 9. 〈◊〉 Rom. 3. now he demonstrates that Faith only hath in it self the Power of justifying Oecumen photi in Cap. Rom. 3. only believing Origen Cap. 3. The only just cause of Glorying is in the Cross of Christ. August de verb. domini Serm. 4. He would have this one thing imputed whereby the others are gathered by Consequence Amb. 1 Cor. 1 It is appointed by God that a Believer should be justified by Faith only Chrysost. Serm. 5. in Cap. 2. Eph. Paul professes him to be Blessed who is supported by Faith only Basil. de humil by Faith only which is in Christ. Hierom. in Epist. ad Gal. cap. 1.
are far from Righteousness None need the Physician but they that are Sick neither doth Christ invite any to come unto him but such as are heavy laden Come unto me saith he all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest But what is coming to Christ but believing in him according to the saying of Augustin Therefore as Christ rejects none that come unto him that is such as return to him by believing but revives and justifies them so faith in Christ in which only our Salvation consists is no where of a saving efficacy but only in those whom it finds burdened and afflicted Another Objection If Faith only were sufficient to Iustification it would follow that good Works are not necessary But the Consequent is false And Therefore the Antecedent also is false That Faith ony is sufficient Vega confirms the Minor with this Argument Unless good Works had been necessary in all respects Paul had not so carefully given Instructions about Vertue and rebuked Vice and so mightily commended good Manners and Integrity of Life but we shall afterwards enquire into the Minor I come now to the Argument And First I deny the Major for this is not a necessary Consequence Salvation is obtained by Faith in Christ only Therefore good Works are not necessary The necessity of Vertue and honest discipline is and always hath been very great in all respects both private and publick yet this necessity doth not at all detract from the peculiar dignity of Faith that it should not be the only cause of Iustification as on the other side the Iustification of Faith doth not take away the necessity nor lessen the care of a Godly Life Therefore both Faith in Christ and the practice of Holiness are necessary the one to justifie Sinners in the sight of God and the other to exercise them that are justified in this World Therefore There is need of a distinction in this case for according to Philosophy a thing is said to be necessary two manner of ways First Absolutely and simply when one thing is so necessary to another that it cannot be done or consist without it Secondly In respect of Consequence when a thing is of such a Nature that as soon as it begins to be other things also are joyned with it or at least soon follow after and thus good works in persons justified are necessary to Salvation not simply but in regard of Consequence By what I have said any Reader that is not void of Sense may easily discern that we seek not to banish good Works out of the World that they should not be necessary but we only remove them from being a cause of Iustifying That so both Faith and Works may be put each of them in their own place and contained within their own bounds For Paul did not in vain nor without great necessity exhort with much vehemency to the Godly practice of a Christian Life For what is more glorious in it self or more worthy of the profession of Christianity or fitter to adorn the Doctrine of the Gospel than that those who are called by the Name of Christ should resemble him exactly in their manners and the practice of their lives And as they profess themselves to be Citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom they should according to their power endeavour to lead a Life like Heaven upon Earth On the contrary what is more abominable or odius than if those who have been engaged by so many benefits exalted to so great dignity and are joyned to him into so near an union by so many Covenants and Obligations if yet they do not follow his Foot-steps nor imitate him in the practice of their lives Therefore in this we and they agree that Works of Piety are very necessary but we must consider wherein this necessity lies For they are effects which of necessity depend upon their cause from whence they proceed but the cause hath no dependance upon them by any necessity By the like Consequence we call many things necessary in common Offices of Civility and Humanity as when Kindnesses are received what is more necessary and according to Iustice than a thankful remembrance of a Favour received and a readiness of Mind to give evidence of thankfulness not only in Words but also by repaying Kindness with Kindness if there be Opportunity Which thankfulness was nevertheless no cause of the Kindness that was done Let us here compare other kinds of Offices Who knows not that a Son and Heir ought of necessity to be dutiful to his Father But again who can be ignorant that this is no cause in him why he should receive the Inheritance The same also may be observed in Marriage where the Wife being tyed to her own Husband of necessity owes Subjection to him which nevertheless she shews to him not so much for any Law of necessity that extorts it as of her own accord and willingly being provoked by a Principle of Love moreover when she shews him the greatest Subjection this necessity is no cause of the Marriage bond Iust so it is in the performance of Godly Works which Paul commands us to maintain for necessary uses not that necessity of Works is any cause of Iustification but because it cannot otherways be but that where true Faith is there of necessity good Works are required and yet they are not so much required as they are a necessary Consequence for who was ever endued with the true Knowledge of Christ the Son of God or had the secret breathings of his Spirit or had a lively sense of his unsearchable Power and the unspeakable Glory of his Majesty but is drawn after him with the Cords of Love and cleaves unto him with all his Heart setting light by all the Vanities of this World Moreover who hath a true savour of Christ but he dispises the World and all the things of the World as the dirt under his Feet So that now there is no need of any Law to exact Works of Righteousness of him who is truly planted in Christ because he is a Law to himself and does more of his own accord than can be commanded by any Compulsion An Argument of the Iesuites The Word only is not found in the Holy Scripture therefore Faith only doth not justifie Though it is not true that this exclusive Word is no where found in the Holy Scriptures yet suppose we should grant it to be true what would be the Consequence Verily those things that follow from a necessary Consequence though they are not expressed yet they are implied And therefore ye also your selves admit many Words into your Confession of Faith of which the Scripture makes no mention But let us proceed you say this Exclusive Word is not found in Canonical Scripture I confess it is not in so many Letters and Syllables But seeing we meet with so many other things in sacred Writings that exclude all these Accessory
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