Nazianzen de moderatione Our Righteousness is Faith only Bernard our Righteousness is no other thing but the Indulgence of God Thom. Aquin. in 1 Tim. 1. Therefore there is no hope of Iustification but in Faith only A twofold Iustification 〈◊〉 to the Papists The second Iustification of Papisis overturned A Rule of Law Ambrose in Cap. 3. ad Rom. It is proved out of Ambrose that a twofold manner of Iustificatoin is impossible Gregor 2. lib. Moral Cap. 40. Gregor ibid. There is a twofold consideration both of good and Evil Works An Answer by way of Instance Every Union of things doth not confound their Offices Erasmus censurus Parisiensium Tit. 7. They of Paris argue that Faith can be without Charity 1 Cor. 13. Chrysostom A cavilling about the Word all An Argument out of a place of 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 13. Mat. 11. In the Kingdom of Heaven Faith is greater than Charity 1 Cor. 13. The Offices of Charity Charity commended from its duration How great things Faith doth in Heaven How Charity is greater than Faith and how Faith is greater than Charity Iustification before God Iustification before men What the Iustification is whereof Iames speaks Human Iustification which consists in the shewing of good works An outward appearance is often deceitful Gen. 15. Gal. 3. Romans 3. Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Reason Tiletan Free Iustification by Faith is proved by the Words of Paul Andr. Vega de just pag. 751. Rom. 4. The Distinction of the Papists is idle and Impertinent Rom. 1. Eph. 1. Colos. 2. Wherein the difference between the Law and Grace consists A Similitude The Distinction of Hosius 2. Arg. out of Paul Rom. 3. Andraeas Vega Isa. 1. Aug. de perfect just But when the highest Lord shall sit on the Throne who will boast that he hath a clean Heart And who will boast that he is pure from his Sin Unless it be those that Glory in their own Righteousness and not in the Mercy of the Iudge What manner of Gospel Paul preached Rom. 3. The popish comment about the universal Sign is overturned Aug. de praedest Sanct. lib. 1. cap. 8. Hab. No Man denies Works to be necessary Basil. in Psal. 32. Nazian 3 Argum. St. Paul Rom. 4. 4 Argum. Rom. 10. 5 Argum. Acts 13. 6 Argum. Acts 10. 7 Argum. 1 Cor. 3. 8 Argum. Arguments out of S. Paul Rom. 4. Rom. 10. Romans 4. Acts 13. 1 Cor. 3. An argument taken from Examples Acts 2. Acts 8. Acts 16. Luke 7. Luke 18. Luke 23. Luke 18. Inherent Righteousness Rom. 10. Gal. 3. Rom. 10. A Sophistical Pretence A Sophistical Objection How Grace justifies according to the Opinion of the Papists Works considered in a twofold respect as they are either of grace or of nature Aug. de spirttu litera cap. 30. What is righteousness by the Law The righteousness of the Law righteousness by the Law or in the Law A Rule of Lawyers Aug. de fid oper c. 15. The cause why we are chosen and justified in Christ only Vega de fide operibus q. 2. pa. 754. It is sufficient that we by believing only be justified unless we do otherways hinder the Grace of God by our Sins One manner of justifying and that perpetual The Distinction of a first and second Iustification is confuted The cause of Iustification is not twofold but one Eph. 2. Rom. 11. The Caviling of the Papists An indefinite Proposition Rom. 3. Isa. 55. A frivolous Trick of the Sophisters Isa. 52. The VVords of Paul wrested by the Papists Tarrianus Iesuit pro epist. pent lib. 4. An Answer to the first Objection An Answer to the Objection An Answer to the third Objection 1 Tim. 1. 1 Tim. 2. 2 Tim. 1. 2 Cor. 5. Ephes. 3. The blind Errour of the Papists about the sense and scope of Pauls Epistles Romans 7. Vega de Iustificat p. 771. Iohn 3. Romans 4. Aug. de Haeres Haeres 54. Iohn 6. Acts 10. Acts 16. Gal. 5. Tridentine Counc 1. Sess. 6. cap. 7. Objection from the words of Paul Answer Why Faith is alone in Iustifying How Faith Charity and other vertues are joyned together What where how Faith works by Love Trid. Concil cap. 11. If any say that a man is justified by the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness only or by the remission of sins only excluding Grace and Charity which is spread abroad in the hearts and inheres in them Or if any say that the Grace whereby we are justified is only the favour of God let him be accursed If any say that Iustifying Faith is nothing else but a fiducial relyance on the Mercy of God forgiving sins for Christ's sake or that this fiducial relyance is the only thing whereby we are justified let him be accursed Sess. 6. cap. 2. Rom. 4. 11. Rom. 3. Rom. 4. Testimonies out of the Prophets Ierem. 23. Ezek. 34. Isa. 41. Isa. 43. Isa. 44. Zeph. 2. The necessity of Pious Works Apoc. 3.
somewhat cleared your Eyes you may search more exactly into the meaning of the Apostles debate and the force of his reasons And first I would have you see into this what it is the Divine Apostle chiefly treats of here what he breaths after what he drives at by this similitude whereby he compares Adam together with Christ and proposes him as a Type and Figure of Christ. But where there is a Type it is necessary there should be something which by certain agreement of similitude may be answerable to the Type On the contrary where there is no agreement there is no Type Where there is no signification there is no similitude discerned Now whereas the former Adam bears a type and resemblance of him that was to follow let us consider in what this similitude consists What in propagating sin Not at all in the very Nature of the Persons What is more unlike Where then is similitude To wit not in the persons nor things themselves but only in the manner of the thing But it must be explained what that manner is For herein lyes all the controversie between us and the Papists For otherways as touching the things themselves and the Persons we are well enough agreed in that for there is no Man who is asked concerning Adam and concerning Christ but will answer concerning both according as the thing is in truth that he is by nature earthly and in his life a Sinner and that he brought upon us not only an Example but also a cause of sinning by a certain venomous contagion of Nature And on the contrary that Christ is from Heaven Heavenly and most pure from all defilement of sin and that he only is the Saviour of the World Concerning which if I am not mistaken there is an agreement between us and our Adversaries But concerning the manner how these either good or evil things come to us from these two Originally herein consists all the matter of controversie between us for as there are many who think we are no other way guilty but that by the example of sinning we imitate Adam the first Author of Sinning So you may see many who think we are upon no other account righteous and acceptable to God but that being helped by Grace we attain unto Christs most Holy Works and his most pure Innocency of Life or do very nearly resemble the same Who though they seem to say something yet is not all contained in that For though good Education and imitation wisely used hath no small influence for the becoming Vertuous whereby it may come to pass that some perhaps may seem less wicked than others and in some respect to excel others in the praise of Piety But imitation or any instruction of discipline will never perform this In short nor any way besides will be sufficient for this that you may shake form off your neck that which you drew from Adam or that you should attain that which is in Christ that is that you should appear righteous in the sight of God unless Christ come in to your succour another way than by any of your endeavours how great soever You will say After what manner is all this No Men can tell you that better than St. Paul For after what manner the former Adam ruin'd you after the same manner the Second Adam Christ restores you That first Author of your kind whilest thou was not yet born killed thee in the root by his not by thy rebellion and drew thee into misery and destruction In Adam behold Christ for in like manner being born and having dyed for thee by his won Innocency not by thine hath restored thee again to true 〈◊〉 and Paradice As therefore the transgression of Adam was imputed to thee who didst not Sin after the similitude of his transgression So the Righteousness of Christ is imputed unto thee who didst not Work after the similitude of Christ. In the one of whom behold the severity of Iudgment in the other the excellency of Grace What if this perhaps seems hard and strange to any Man in Adam that I should suffer the punishment of another Man's Sin and that those should be punished for the crime of another who committed nothing For it must needs be another Mans crime seeing I am deprived of Righteousness not for my own fault but for the fault of my Parent Let this same Man again leaving Adam cast back his Eyes upon Christ In whom the bounty of a most plentiful clemency makes amends by a counterpoize for the severity of the former Iudgment For from one Man Death passed upon all on them also who sinned not And justly Though I do not so much regard merit here I only consider the manner of the thing Come then let us compare the Type with the Antitype from the disobedience of one Man as I said death passed upon all Men who sinned not after his example which is a thing that cannot be denied After the same manner again from the Righteousness of one Man Life is communicated unto all who did not like him work Righteousness which is agreeable by the like reason for otherways Christ could not agree to his Type Here now consider whosoever thou art Christian Reader whether the judgments of God in Adam should be more dreaded by thee in which the severity of God imputed unto thee being not yet born that which thou hadst not committed or mercy in Christ the Lord should be more loved who tothee not working but believing in him that justifies the wicked imputes the Righteousness thou didst not deserve By which you see worthy Man if Paul the Apostle should be credited how unworthy of any credit your Doctrine is whereby you take away the Grace of all Imputation and leave no Righteousness besides to miserable Sinners but what every Man purchases by his own good deeds which how true it is let us examine by that place of Paul which convinces you of a Lye and a shameful Error by this most evident Argument Argument Ma. After what manner Christ was made sin for us after the like manner we are made the Righteousness of God by Christ. Mi. Christ was made sin for us no other way but by Imputation only Concl. Therefore we are made Righteous before God no other way but by imputation only I beseech you by your Chatholick Charity what will you say or what will you feign O most dear Osorius to this so clear evidence of manifest Scripture Do you not see that you are tyed on every side with Bonds that are Apostolick and wholly of Adamant Now what Turning what Hole to escape at can you find Christ is made sin for us Wherefore That we might be made the Righteousness of God by him saith the Apostle Will you deny it I suppose you will not What way then was he made sin Will you say by committing it No By Imputation then Certainly it is so Right indeed What
due manner Grace is necessarily requisite to wit to fulfill them with that Charity that ought to be by which the fulfilling of them becomes Meritorious Which Comment of theirs we having formerly explained how false and frivolous it is there is no need now of any new Arguments Verily the Christian Doctrine teaches us far otherways for though we confess that which is reasonable That the Divine Grace is never idle but always stirs up the minds of the Regenerate to the best things yet these Works are never of so great value as to promote them unto Eternal Life which is freely promised by God not to them that Work but to them that Believe or if Salvation is premised to them that Work it is not therefore promised because they Work But they that truly believe do therefore Work because Salvation is promised Therefore Iustification first proceeds in the most direct Order as the cause of good Fruits but that is not effected by these But it consists only of the free favour of him that confers it upon them not upon the account of them that Merit but upon another account to wit That whereby the most bountiful Father of his own Will hath given to us Meriting nothing his only begotten Son who hath fulfilled the Law for us and hath satisfied the Iustice of God for our Unjustice For herein consists all our Salvation and the Efficacy of Divine Grace and the praise thereof appears very evidently Not that we in the mean while being idle should do nothing but that doing all things we should Attribute nothing to our selves imputing all to the Mercy of God Which things that they may be confirmed with the greater evidence and certainty let us compare them with the most sure Oracles of Sacred Scripture And First beginning at the very first Head of that Book let us consider Adam that Miserable Progenitor and Overturner of our Nature Who when he had both privately and publickly destroyed both himself and us all by an abominable Wickedness received at length the most Blessed Tidings of the promised Seed What could the bounty of God have promised more firmly or given more largely to any Man though he had been most Holy And what did that first and chiefest sinner deserve to receive Abraham was commanded to leave his Native Country and to go out whither God called him thereunto was added a very glorious promise of giving him an Inheritance and he obeyed him that called him The promiser did not fail he was increased and enriched above measure but if I ask by what Merit of his own what can the Admirers of Works answer me here Afterwards Ifaac was born to him when his Father and Mother were so Old that there was no hope remaining of their begetting Children Why so But that God might make it manifest that in the benefits of God there is not left any thing for Human Pride wherein it may glory Ioseph very kindly helped his Brethren who were in danger to Perish for Hunger though they had very inhumanly Conspired his Destruction neither did he only furnish them with plenty of Corn but also promoted them to great Honours And now what Merits did they bring with them that they should be so Honourably Entertained The same may be asked concerning the Israelites who having slain a Lamb without blemish were delivered from most grievous Bondage for what Vertues of their own Whether for keeping the Law But the Law was not yet made at least it was not yet written Was it because they obliged the Prophet Moses with kindnesses whom rather they endeavoured to betray by most unjust ways and complaints After they had endured so many laborious Travels and Iourneys they came at length to the promised Land of their Inheritance in which First the Town of Iericho is Besieged the Walls fall down not by strength but by sounds Afterwards having slain and subdued so many Kings in one day the People is placed in their Habitations It was verily a great Miracle of Victory but whence happened this Victory What shall we say Because the Israelites were more in number I suppose it was not so was it because they were stronger Neither was that the cause What did they then excell all the other Nations in Vertues Yea what Nation was ever more perverse But you will say they obliged God to befriend them by observance of his Worship Yea how often and how grievously did they exasperate God with their sins How wickedly did they murmur against their Leaders and so provoked the anger of God against themselves How often was the Clemency of God by their Perfidious Rebellion Wicked Contrivances Untractable Stubbornness Murmuring Concupiscence and Perverseness not only provoked but also almost overcome so that he would have utterly destroyed the Rebellious People with all their Posterity unless Moses the meekest of Men by Humble Prayer with hands lifted up had turned the provoked Anger of God into Mercy But it is better to take notice what the Lord himself speaks against this People with his own Mouth Say not saith he in thy Heart when the Lord thy God shall destroy those Nations before thee For my Righteousness the Lord brought me in to possess this Land whereas those Nations were destroyed for their own Abominations For thou shalt not enter in to possess their Lands for thy own Righteousness nor for the uprightness of thy Heart but because they did wickedly they were destroyed at thy entring in And that the Lord might fulfill the Word which he promised by Oath to thy Fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob Know therefore that the Lord thy God hath not given thee this Land for thy Righteousness for thou art a stiff-necked People c. Ye have heard the naked and simple History but yet true of the thing that came to pass and not only true but also much more Mystical If all things happened to them as the Apostle witnesseth under a figure what else should we judge concerning this History but that under the History lies hid a more hidden Mystery For it can not be doubted that this Land of Canaan that was promised to the Israelites Represents those Celestial and Immortal Mansions of the inheritance above which if it be true let us compare the truth with this figure and shadow the Antitype with the Type Iust as they not being helped by any Merites of their own yea contrary to all their Merits neither for any peculiar cause in them but through the singular favour of God promising and for the sake of the Fathers to whom it was promised by Oath received by gift the possession of the Country that flowed with Milk and Honey So also we should Iudge of the Heavenly Country of Immortality That it is not due to any Vertues or Works of ours but that it comes to us by the free promise of God for the sake of his Son into whose hands all things are given that
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