cause of Justification that is within us and from which we are denominated really just whereas the remission of Sin is an act of God without us and of the deletion of the habit of Sin inherent not of the pardon of the acts of Sin formerly committed After that this is agreed on also by Protestants that these two go always together and that none is reconciled or received into God's favour by remission of Sin who is not also at the same time renewed in his mind and made righteous by infusion of the Holy Spirit β. β. Calvin Institut Lib. 3. ch 14. § 9. Fatemur dum nos intercedente Christi justitia sibi reconciliat Deus ac gratuita peccatorum remissione donatos pro justis habet cum ejusmodi misericordia conjunctum hoc esse beneficium quod per Spiritum suum in nobis habitat Lib. 3. cap. 16. § 1. Jam utrumque nobis confert Christus utrumque fide consequimur vitae scilicet novitatem gratuitam reconciliationem De vera Christianae pacificationis ratione 2. Cap. Si quis ex adverso objiciat non aliter nos fieri participes Christi justitiae quia dum ejus Spiritu in obedientiam legis renovamur hoc quidem fatendum est c. Again Neque vero cum homines dicimus gratis justificari Christi beneficio tacenda est regeneationis gratia Quin potias cavendum ne a nobis separentur quae perpetuo Dominus conjungit Quid ergo Doceantur homines fieri non posse ut justi censeantur Christi Merito quin renoventur ejus Spiritu in sanctissimam vitam frustraque gratuita Dei adoptione gloriari omnes in quibus Spiritus regenerationis non habitat denique nullos a Deo recipi in gratiam qui non justi quoque vere fiant Mountague Appeal p. 170. Whom Christ doth not quicken he doth not justify This is directly the Doctrine of the Scripture Gal. 3.22 1. Cor. 6.11 Heb. 9.14 Rev. 1.5 6. 1. Pet. 2.9 Fathers also are cited c. Bishop Forbes de Justific Lib. 2. c. 4. Protestantes unanimi consensu fatentur inhaerentis justitiae seu sanctitatis infusionem cum gratuita nostri justificatione necessario ac perpetuo conjunctam esse Now first that our Justification consists not only in the former but also in the later Catholicks evidently collect from many Texts of Scripture which do apply our freedome from God's wrath and punishment and inheriting eternal life to this later as other Texts do to the former Such are these Rom. 3.24 Where we are said to be justified freely i. e. without any thing in us deserving it by his Grace i. e. infused as all grant it is at that time when God justifies us Titus 3.5 ver Where speaking of Baptisme the Apostle saith That according to his mercy he saved us by the laver of regeneration and renovation i. e. internal of the Holy Ghost that being justified by his Grace i. e. in this internal renovation c. we should be made Heirs of eternal life 1. Cor. 6.11 compared with the former where speaking of the same Baptisme he saith But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus into which they are baptized and by the Spirit of God i. e. infused in our Baptisme by which infused we are said here expresly as to be sanctified so justified and this put the last as also Rom. 8.30 it is put alone but there necessarily including also our Sanctification Rom. 4.25 Where Christ is said to be delivered for our offences i. e. the remission of them and to be raised again for our justification i. e. for our regeneration or renovation by the Spirit given unto us upon his Resurrection comp Rom. 8.10 Eph. 4.23 24. where the new man is said to be created in justice Gal. 5 6. comp 6.15 Rom. 6.7 He that is dead i. e. to Sin by a new life given by Grace is justified from Sin comp Gal. 3.21 Rom. 5.17.21 Where 't is said That those who receive abundance of Grace and donation of Justice shall reign in life c. And that Grace reigneth i. e. in us by or thr Justice to life eternal It were needless to add more To the same matter belong all those Texts wherein we are said By being born again and by inherent righteousness to be made Friends Domesticks Children Heirs of God All those Texts which atribute Salvation or also remission of Sin or punishment either to the several particular habits and branches of this inherent Righteousness as to that of Faith of Hope or Charity of the Love or Fear or Service of God or Love Mercy and Alms to our Neighbour or to the several Act of these Habits and Graces i. e. to our good works following Regeneration Lastly All those Texts wherein God is said To accept persons for their inherent holiness or righteousness And as this is evident in Scripture so it is concluded by many Protestants that the Term Justification both sometimes in Scripture and most frequently by the Fathers is used to signify not only remission of Sin but internal Sanctification and in this Latitude have several Protestants themselves explained it γ. γ. Bishop Forbes de Justificatione Lib. 2. Cap. 4. cioncerning the Scriptures Verbum justificari quandoque etiam in Scriptura significare justitia imbui vel donari non diffitentur permulti docti Protestantes contra aliorum rigidorum id pertinaciter negantium sententiam quoting there the words of Beza Zanchy Peter Martyr Chamier and others Again concerning the Fathers Ibid. c. 5. Hanc fuisse communem Patrum omnium tum Graecorum tum Latinorum Sententiam ex quamplurimis illorum dictis Augustini imprimis acerimi gratiae Christi propugnatoris nemini in veterum lectione versato obscurum esse potest Res adeo certa manifesta est ut dissentientes ipsimet Protestantes id ultro concedunt quoting the Confessions of Calvin Chemnitius Beza Bucer Chamier c. to this purpose Imo saith the same Forbes multi etiam doctissimi Protestantes hanc ipsam sententiam secuti sunt aut saltem eam non omnino improbarunt quoting after many others Spalatensis Bishop Mountague and Dr. Feild Whose words are Append. 3. l. 11. c. The first Justification implyeth in it three things remission of Sins past acceptation and receiving into that favour that righteous men are wont to find with God and the grant of the gift of the Holy Spirit and of that sanctifying and renewing Grace whereby we may be framed to the declining of Sin and doing of the works of righteousness 2. Again Catholicks contend that in comparing these two concurrents to our Justification the later i. e. to be made internally and habitually just ut peccatis mortui justitiae vivamus 1. Pet. 2.24 is the chiefer and more principal then the first i. e. to be reputed only not unjust or not a Sinner To which may be added that there being two
things very considerable in Sin the transient act and the remaining habit of which the later is far the worse and of which it is necessary that the one be deleted as well as the other pardoned for any one to be accounted positively just or not impious this later the habit is not removed or abolished but by Grace first infused and also whether before or rather after the same Grace infused our former actual Sins are pardoned is thought by Protestants a thing doubtful and not necessary to be decided δ δ. See the words of Calvin in Antidoto Conc. Trident. Of Beza contra Illyricum and others in Forbes de Justific 2. l. 4. c. p. 70 71. Simul nos justificari renovari saith Calvin dico in Christo per fidem nobis unito applicato neque haec an illa ordine antegrediatur tantillum laborandum censeo cum unam sine altera nunquam recipiamus This infusion of Grace therefore by several titles claims the chief place in our Justification and is that thing only in us that justifieth or maketh us to be really just and so is usually stiled the formal cause of our Justification 3. Meanwhile both the one and the other being the effects only of God's mercy Catholicks affirm That since God justifieth us not for those but for the righteousness and sufferings of Christ as the sole meritorious cause thereof it is not necessary as to our Justification in respect of inherent righteousness that this be every way consummate and perfect 4. Nay further they freely concede that it is such as that it doth produce some particular acts perfect and without contagion of Sin learned Protestants assenting ε. ε. Forbes Ibid. c. 5. Ecquid magis injuriose contumeliose dici potest in Christi Gratiam quam asserere nos nihilominus nihil prorsus vel cogitare vel dicere vel agere posse quod purum sit a peccati Sorde And § 13. Sententia haec rigida multis etiam doctissimis Protestantibus aliisque viris moderatissimis semper unprobata fuit quoting them at large Ibid. Yet ordinarily it doth many or the most mixt with several imperfections and that Venial Sins do both adhere to and intervene between many of the good actions of the justified ζ. ζ. Estius 2. Sent. 41. d. 4. § Et justi in iis operibus quae indubitate bona sunt saepe-numero peccant dum its se aliquonsque vel concupiscentiae vel negligentiae vel alicujus levioris circumstantiae ad integritatem boni operis requisitae defectus admiscent Forbes de Justificatione 4. l. 3. c. 8. § Communiter sentiunt Romani nullum Sanctorum vitare posse omnia venialia peccata per longum vitae tempus Conc. Trid. Sess 6. Can. 23. Which Sins after are remitted only by God's Mercy through Christ's Merits as those are before Justification γ. γ. Bellarm. de Justificat 4. l. 14. c. In Answer to the Objection Post primam reconciliationem Christus ociosus esset saith no Quoniam peccata nostra quamvis levia quotidiana ipse purgat sanguis ejus emundat nos ab omni peccato Estius 2. Sent. 42. d. 6. § Nemo quantumcunque justus nisi sanguine Christi Redemptoris etiam a Veniali peccato emundatus fuit in regnum Dei admitti potest See the same in Bellarm. de Justificat 4. l. 21. c. § Resp non dicit 5. Lastly Several learned Catholicks do not hold this inherent righteousness or internal renovation so absolutely necessary to mans Justification i. e. to remission of Sin or capacity of future Glory as that none possibly could had it so pleased God received from him pardon of his offences or also through virtue of Christ's merits an eternal glory without having such inherent righteousness and whilst he only reduced to his pure Naturals or that none could possibly or justly be deprived of Glory that hath such inherent righteousness Vid. Bellarmin de Justificat 2. l. 16. c. Reatus paenae quartus effectus Scotus 1. Sent. 17. d. F. a Sanct. Clara Deus Natura Prob. 23. But only maintaining that it is God's Pact or Covenant and declared Will that Christ's Merits should this and no other way merit for us freedome from Hell and life eternal Namely First by satisfying for our former Sins and procuring for us this donation of the sanctifying Spirit within us 2ly What Catholicks do include in and understand by Justification being thus explained Next they affirm that there is nothing in man that can antecedently merit this our Justification but that the sole meritorious cause of it both in respect of remission of Sin or any punishment due unto it and of the donation of Grace destroying in us the habits and pollutions of Sin and producing good works is the obedience active and passive the works labours sufferings and satisfactions of Jesus Christ only exclusive to the works sufferings or satisfactions of any other Where also they maintain that neither any works of our's done by the meer strength of nature have the least worth in them to procure God's assistant Grace for the producing of any previous disposition to this Justification as of Faith Repentance a love of God c. Nor again these dispositions tho wrought by assistant Grace and having some supernatural dignity in them have any such worth as by it to procure from God setting aside his meer bounty and free promise the Justification it self ζ. ζ. Conc. Trid. Sess 6.8 c. Nihil eorum quae justificationem praecedunt sive fides sive opera ipsam justificationis gratiam promeretur 'T is true that these dispositions to or conditions of man's Justification as effected by Grace having some true worth in them tho this no way comparable to the Acts produced by Grace inherent after Justification and besides having a gracious promise made to or acceptance of them which two things none can deny some Catholick Authors think that this word Meritum qualifying it with the addition de congruo may be justly applyed to them especially since St. Austine and other Fathers have so applyed it formerly St. Austine and other Fathers have so applyed it formerly St. Aust Ep. 105 106. others think not the matter agreed on the difference is about words and the Church's Subjects left to their liberty See Bellarm. de Justific 1. l. 21. c. And see Head XVI Merits 3. Yet they next affirm That there are some conditions or dispositions required of us and also by God's free first exciting and then assisting Grace man's Will assenting and co-operating wrought in us Which tho by any worth of theirs they cannot merit yet by vertue of God's free Promise and the new Covenant do certainly impetrate the applying or if Protestants Will imputing to us both the active and passive Obedience of Christ viz. all his Merits which are accepted by God instead of and as if they had been our own but this not as to our being esteemed by God our selves
them For if some more imperfect acts of Faith of Repentance Hope Love c. done only by God's assistant Grace did thro God's promise and Christ's merits procure our first Justification and the consequents thereof much more the same acts and others the like now more perfect and proceeding from Grace inhabitant do thro the same promise and merits confer on or procure for us a greater or as some stile it a second Justification viz. An improvement of our former justice the remission of such Venial Sins as are still committed by the justified and a richer eternal reward 9. They affirm That a man may fall away again from this state of Justification by incurring those greater Sins either of Omission or Commission which are for this cause called commonly Mortal from which fall he is capable of restorement to a second Justification or justified condition by the same means as he attained the first only if instead of Baptisme not iterable he make use of the Sacrament of Penance for his entrance into it where-in concerning the just value and vertue of Penal Works see below Head XIX 10. These are the Catholicks Positions concerning Justification much tending to the promotion of pious endeavours and an holy life with whom also the more moderate Protestants do in most if not all the former Points concur But meanwhile there are other Tenents of the more rigid Protestants on this subject and several also of them broached by the first Author of the Reformation which brings a very great prejudice to it that tend much to the relaxation of good manners the breeding of false securities and weakning mens endeavours in the prosecution of a good life such as these ζ. ζ. See the most rigid Protestants maintaining the most of these Opinions cited and censured by Bishop Forbes in his Considerationes aequae placidae de Justificatione And by Dr. Hammond in his Treatise of Fundamentals from the 11th to the 19th Chapter And by Mr. Thorndike Epilog 2. l. from the 4th to the 10th Chapter 1st Their placing Justification only in the remission of Sin and imputation to us of the righteousness of Christ not in infusion of Grace or renovation of life making men fancy here that all their work is done for and without them none to be done in or by them 2ly In such remission of Sin their making Justification as it were one momentaneous act and God at one and the same time remitting to us all our Sins past present and to come which must needs produce afterward a very careless behaviour both to committing and repenting of Sin 3ly In such imputation of Christ's Righteousness their maintaining it in such a manner not as if we were meritoriously justified by the application of the effects of it to us as if it had been our own but formally justified by a translation of it and investiture with it in such a manner as if it were inherent in us and esteemed to be done by our selves 4ly From whence ariseth also a conceit that all men by this righteousness apprehended by their Faith are equally justified or all esteemed equally righteous in their Justification 5ly And so also that all become equal in the future celestial reward whether working much or working little 6ly Their making the only instrument or necessary condition required in us for Justification or remission of Sin Faith alone an easy act of the brain as Dr. Hammond Of Fundamentals p. 116. observes having nothing in it repugnant to our passions and not any other good disposition wrought in us by God's especial Grace Repentance purpose of a better Life and this Faith too required of us for this purpose not as any work or duty but only as an instrument or hand to apprehend and apply Christ's merits to us and to make his righteousness ours c. 7ly Their making this Faith that justifies us a strong fiducia or full assurance that we are justified or if you will that we shall be justified only on those terms if we firmly believe we shall be so Which obliging men of what life soever to believe they are or shall be justified without looking after any requisite thereto save only this full belief renders those who continue still unreformed in their Manners yet by such strong fancy secure of their Salvation whilst none more than they extol the all-sufficiency of Christ's Righteousness nor none so much as they do or have reason to diffide in and dis-esteem their own From which Tenent also it follows that all those that are truly justified are assured or certainly know that they are justified The ordinary effect of which Doctrine is despair in some who find in themselves no such assurance certain presumption in others who are fully assured without just cause 8ly Their holding that a justifying is only a true Faith which breeds a great presumption in those for their being also justified persons who do and have no reason but to take themselves for true believers and who would even give their bodies to be burnt for any Article of the Christian Faith 1. Cor. 13.3 and yet do or may want Charity and so Justification 9ly Their holding good works and the other dispositions that always accompany a justified Faith to be necessary to our Justification or Salvation only as effects and fruits or also signs and assurances to our selves or others of this Faith necessary for their presence indeed but not for their efficiency as causa sine qua non ad salutem non impediendum but not as instruments or conditions required thereto as our Faith is thus destroying obedience it self by taking away the chief motives that men have to it and making them neglect any further pains-taking for the production of those things which they are taught do necessarily grow from Faith or which serve only to justify them not before God but Men. 10ly Their expounding St. Paul not only to exclude Works performed by strength of Nature but done by Grace from any way disposing us or concurring thereto And St. James only to speak of good Works as declaring our Justification before men not obtaining it with God 11ly Their affirming the Promises of the Gospel to be meerly gratuital excepting for Faith and not conditional upon Obedience as those of the Law were denying our Lord to be any Legislator or denying Christian liberty to be so far obliged to the Obedience of the Law as that any account is had of our observing of it in any degree as to obtaining or improving our Justification And that Christians ought now not as tied to it by God's Law but spontaneously and freely to do that Will of his which was formerly made known to them by the Law Which Obedience of our's how little soever and upon such terms we may guess it will not be much yet is accepted by God through the more perfect Obedience of his Son made ours by Faith See Calvin Institutiones 3. l. 19. c. 2.4 § And then we may
dilectio Dei quanta illi cognitioni plenae perfectaeque debetur jam culpae deputandum est but that in some particulars or others still there is in some part in this life a failing of our duty not only some defect in our Virtue but also from it St. Thomas 2 2. q. 184. art 3. speaks thus in answer to the Argument Ad observationem praeceptorum omnes tenentur cum sit de necessitate salutis igitur perfectio Christianae vitae non consistit in praeceptis quia omnes ad perfectionem non tenentur That Non est transgressor praecepti perfectae dilectionis qui non attingit ad medios perfectionis gradus dummodo attingit ad infimum Which lower degree every justified person must be possessed of before performing Counsels Est autem saith he alia perfectio charitatis i. e. the higher degrees of it that transcend the Precept ad quam aliquis per aliquid spirituale augmentum pervenit i. e. by practising and using the advantage of Counsels ut puta cum homo etiam a rebus licitis abstineat ut liberius divinis Obsequiis Vacet So the very highest Degree that of perfect Dilection Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde totis viribus doth not command under pain of sinning and punishment an entire employment of all our powers thoughts and affections on God wholly perpetually nor that we never love desire or think on any thing besides him Protestants assenting but only such a sincerity of our love ut nihil supra eum aequaliter ei diligatur Beyond which there may be yet a more intense dilection of him in Consilio and most acceptable to God to which we stand upon no such penalty obliged ζ. p. 125. Neither can Zachary and Elizabeth who walked in all the Commandments of the Law blameless and so observed this Precept amongst others be imagined to have always exercised the same intensive act of love or the one an act always exactly equal in degree to that of the other 4ly In comparing Counsels and Precepts or some Counsels with others it is granted that the practice of some may be the means or instruments of the acquiring of the other or of any higher perfection therein or also of the preservation of them acquired in respect of which as the means compared with the end there Counsel may be esteemed inferior to the Precept So by exercising some higher degrees of temperance that are in Consilio we arrive easilier to the preservation of virginal or also a conjugal and necessary Chastity and such as is sub Praecepto And granted That all Counsels whatsoever are subordinate and instrumental to the attaining of that one Counsel of perfect Dilection In which and not in any other of them tho every one of them also containeth a greater perfection than the particular Precept to which it relates as hath been said Thes 2. ultimately consists the greatest perfection attainable in this life and of which is that much noted proposition of St. Thomas 2.2 q. 184. a. 3. to be understood That perfectio Christiane vitae per se essentialiter consistit in Praeceptis viz. in these two charitatis or dilectionis Dei proximi secundario autem instrumentaliter in Consiliis viz. those higher acts of other Virtues that do all tend to the perfecting of this love but it is meant by him of this Precept of Love in respect of the superior degrees thereof which are in Consilio and not of the inferiour to which we are obliged under Sin nor of the necessary degree of Charity which every one must already have to be in the state of Grace or Justification which state only produceth the acceptable performance of these Counsels we speak of that tend all to a greater Dilection and yet which state always presupposeth this Dilection already had in some degree γ p. 119. 5ly In comparing the several States of men according to their practice of necessary Duties or also of Counsels as it seems clear that in respect of any Precept of necessary Obedience and the Counsel relating to it caeteris paribus he must needs possess a higher degree of Christian perfection that besides the Precept observes also the Counsel that is that performes the higher degrees of any Virtue than he who only the less so it is granted that one in the observance of some particular Counsels as Virginity or Evangelical Poverty c. may be much inferiour to another that observes them not where some other disparities appear As where the other observes some other Counsels of an higher perfection in which the former person is deficient and especially if the later have attained to that which is the end of all the other a more intensively-perfect love of God or also if he hath been constant in the performance of all the necessary duties with more purity and freedome from Venial Sins 6ly Affirmed also That in one who in respect of some duties aspires to Counsels and doth more at least as to the external act than is commanded yet if he be disobedient so far as to sin mortally in respect of any other duty there ceaseth now all Supererogation or any acceptable or rewardable performance of any such Counsels because no work Meritorious or of Supererogation can be done save by those who are in the state of Grace and possessed of the habit of Charity See Head XVI And therefore far are Catholicks from imagining any acquitting or recompensing of disobedience in one thing by Supererogation in another neither is the laudable tho imperfect performance of some Evangelical Counsels before Justification whereby more easily to attain it and the practice of necessary duties reckoned by Catholicks any work of Supererogation or to be any way preferrable to or so perfect as the observance of those Precepts of necessary Obedience after our Justification to which such Counsels facilitate the way Much less yet is any thing to be accounted an act of greater perfection or work of Supererogation which is necessary to be done in order to performing any Precept for every Precept involves the injunction of all such means without which it cannot be observed upon the same penalty 7ly This for the thing As for the expression of Supererogations it is a word used but not invented by later times but derived from Antiquity who also took it up from the Scripture Luk. 10.35 Quodcunque Supererogaveris ego cum rediero reddam tibi Where St. Austine De Sanctis Virgin cap. 30. Nec enim sicut non Maechaberis non occides ita dici potest non Nubes illa exiguntur ista offeruntur si fiunt ista laudantur imperat vobis in hoc autem si quid Amplius Supererogaveritis in redeundo reddit vobis And De Opere Monach. c. 5. Amplius erogabat Apostolus Paulus qui suis ut ipse testatur Stipendiis militabat Again Confess l. 1. c. 4. Supererogatur tibi ut debeas quis habet