"Then what is the fault of the Church of Rome? Not that she requircth works at their hands which will be saved; but that she attributeth unto works a power of satisfying God for sin, yea, a

virtue

that many thought they purchased heaven by them. This the Reformers did also correct, and taught the people to depend merely upon the death aud intercession of Christ. Others moved subtler questions, as, Whether obedience was an essential part of Faith, or only a consequent of it: This was a nicety scarce becoming Divines, that built only on the simplicity of the Scriptures, and condemned the subtleties of the schools; and it was said that men of ill lives abused this doctrine, and thought if they could but assure themselves that Christ died for them, they were safe enough. So now when they settled the notion of Faith, they divided it into two sorts: the one was a persuasion of the truth of the Gospel; but the other carried with it a submission to the will of God; and both hope, love, and obedience, belonged to it; which was the Faith professed in baptism, and so much extolled by St. Paul, It was not to be so understood, as if it were a certainty of our being predestinated, which may be only a presumption; since all God's promises are made to us on conditions; but it was an entire receiving the whole Gospel according to our baptismal vows. Cranmer took great pains to state this matter right; and made a large collection of many places, all written with his own hand, both out of antient and modern authors, concerning Faith, Justification, and the merit of Good Works; and concluded with this, That our Justification was to be ascribed only to the merits of Christ; and that those who are justified must have charity as well as Faith, but that neither of these was the meritorious cause of Justification." Burnet's Abridgement, A. D. 1540. There is much to the same purpose in his History of the Reformation, in the same year.

virtue to merit both grace here, and in heaven glory (t)." But even in their zeal to renounce and stigmatize this obnoxious doctrine, our Reformers observed some degree of caution; for neither in our Articles, nor in our Liturgy, is it said, that Faith without Good Works will justify; and the word Faith in the 11th Article, "we are justified by Faith only," means a true and lively Faith, which necessarily produces Good Works. The expression "we be justified by Faith only, freely, and without Works," occurs, as we have seen, in the Homilies; but to prevent any wrong inference from it, we are immediately told, that it is used "for to take away clearly all merit of our works, as being unable to deserve our Justification at God's hands;" and the warmth with which a dead Faith is reprobated, and the earnestness with which " charity, and all other virtues and good deeds," are inculcated as indispensable in a true Christian, plainly prove, that our Reformers meant to teach, that eternal life cannot be obtained without Good Works, when they are practicable; that it will not be bestowed upon a bare belief in the divine mission of Christ, but

upon

(t) Hooker on Justification-Si quis dixerit justificati hominis Opera Bona non vere mereri vitam æternam, anathema sit: "If any one shall say that the Good Works of a justified man do not truly deserve eternal life, let him be accursed."-Council of Trent.

upon a belief accompanied with an humble and exclusive reliance upon the merits of our Saviour, and a sincere and uniform endeavour to obey his commands. And indeed in the very Homily from which the above quotation is taken, it is said, "None are to consider themselves justified, who are destitute of repentance, love, and obedience." If none be to consider themselves justified who are destitute of repentance, love, and obedience, it follows that repentance, love, and obedience, are necessary in a justified person, that is, in a person who has been justified, in order that he may continue in a state of Justification. Previous works of obedience are certainly not necessary at the time Justification is received; for in that case no man could have been represented by the Apostles as justified, till he had practised the duties enjoined by the Gospel. And, on the other hand, if actual obedience had not been necessary after Justification, the Apostles would not have given to their converts those numerous precepts for the regulation of their lives, which we find in the Epistles. In the Homily "Of Good Works annexed unto Faith," St. Chrysostom (u) is quoted

as

(u) The discourse from which this passage is taken, Montfaucon, the Benedictine Editor, with reason, considers as spurious, as its style is very different from that of Chrysostom. But still as this passage is quoted in the

Homilies,

as saying, "I can shew a man that by Faith without works lived, and came to heaven: but without Faith never man had life. The thief, that was hanged when Christ suffered, did believe only, and the most merciful God justified him. And because no man shall say again, that he lacked time to do Good Works, for else he would have done them; truth it is, and I will not contend therein: but this I will surely affirm, that Faith only saved him. If he had lived, and not regarded Faith, and the works thereof, he should have lost his salvation again." The Homily ends thus, "And travelling continually (during this life) thus in keeping the commandments of God (wherein standeth the pure, principal, and right honour of God, and which, wrought in Faith, God hath ordained to be the right trade and pathway unto heaven) you shall not fail, as Christ hath promised, to come to that blessed and everlasting life, where you shall live in glory and joy with God for ever."

The reference to the Homily upon Justification, was in the Articles of 1552; but our Reformers in 1562, as a farther caution, added the 12th Article,

Homilies, we may consider the sentiments contained in it as those of our Reformers. Savile, in his 6th volume, places this discourse among the genuine works of Chrysostom. I have not had an opportunity of ascertaining whether it be in the Editio Princeps of this Father, printed at Verona in 1529.

Article, no part of which was in the Articles of 1552, and which may be considered as explanatory of the species of Faith of which they intended to speak in the preceding Article, the word Faith being there used without any epithet. In the 12th Article it is said, "Albeit that Good Works cannot put away our sins, yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith;" the Popish doctrine of human merit is here again condemned, for the purpose of declaring, that though Good Works possess no power to atone for sin, yet they are pleasing and acceptable to God, and arise necessarily out of a true and lively Faith. This article, therefore, plainly shews, that the Faith, by which in the preceding Article we are said to be justified, is a Faith productive of a holy and virtuous life (v), and not a

Faith

(v) In all the confessions of Faith at the time of the Reformation, which assert the Justification of men by Faith only or by Faith without Works, it is material to keep constantly in mind, that the great object of Protestants in these declarations was, to reject the Popish doctrine of the merit of Good Works, and that by Faith the Reformed always meant a true and lively Faith. It is impossible not to observe the great similarity between the opinions of the Jews in our Saviour's time, and of the Papists at the time of the Reformation, respecting the efficacy of external works. Both also ascribed too much to the power of the human will.