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ART.
XL.

ARTICLE XI.

Of the Justification of Man.

We are accounted Righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by Faith, and not for our own Works or Deservings. Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only, is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of Comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification.

In order to the right understanding this Article, we must first consider the true meaning of the terms of which it is made up: which are justification, faith, faith only, and good works; and then, when these are rightly stated, we will see what judgments are to be passed upon the questions that do arise out of this Article. Just, or justified, are words capable of two senses; the one is, a man who is in the favour of God by a mere act of his grace, or upon some consideration not founded on the holiness or the merit of the person himself. The other is, a man who is truly holy, and as such is beloved of God. The use of this word in the New Testament was probably taken from the term chasidim among the Jews, a designation of such as observed the external parts of the law strictly, and were believed to be upon that account much in the favour of God; an opinion being generally spread among them, that a strict observance of the external parts of the law of Moses did certainly put a man in the favour of God. In opposition to which, the design of a great part of the New Testament is to shew that these things did not put men in the favour of God. Our Saviour used the word saved in opposition to condemned; and spoke of men who were condemned already, as well as of others who were saved. St. Paul enlarges more fully into many discourses; in which our being justified and the righteousness of God, or his grace towards us, are all terms equivalent to one another. His design in the Epistle to the Romans was to prove that the observance of the Mosaical law could not justify, that is, could not put a man under the grace or favour of God, or the righteousness of God, that is, into a state of acceptation with him, as that is opposite to a state of wrath or condemnation: he upon that shews that Abraham was in the favour of God before he was circumcised, upon the account of his trusting to the promises of God, and obeying his commands; and that God reckoned upon these acts of his, as much as if they had been an entire course of Gen. xv. 6. obedience; for that is the meaning of these words, And it Rom. iv. 3, was imputed to him for righteousness.' These promises were freely made to him by God, when by no previous works of

John iii. 18.

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his he had made them to be due to him of debt; therefore ART. that covenant which was founded on those promises, was the 'justifying of Abraham freely by grace.' Upon which St. Paul, in a variety of inferences and expressions, assumes that we are in like manner 'justified freely by grace through the redemp- Rom. iii. tion in Christ Jesus.' That God has of his own free good- 24. ness offered a new covenant, and new and better promises to mankind in Christ Jesus, which whosoever believe as Abraham did, they are justified as he was. So that whosoever will observe the scope of St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, will see that he always uses justification in a sense that imports our being put in the favour of God. The Epistle to the Galatians was indeed writ upon the occasion of another controversy, which was, whether, supposing Christ to be the Messias, Christians were bound to observe the Mosaical law or not: whereas the scope of the first part of the Epistle to the Romans is to shew that we are not justified nor saved by the law of Moses, as a mean of its own nature capable to recommend us to the favour of God, but that even that law was a dispensation of grace, in which it was a true faith like Abraham's that put men in the favour of God; yet in both these Epistles, in which justification is fully treated of, it stands always for the receiving one into the favour of God.

In this, the consideration upon which it is done, and the condition upon which it is offered, are two very different things. The one is a dispensation of God's mercy, in which he has regard to his own attributes, to the honour of his laws, and his government of the world: the other is the method in which he applies that to us, in such a manner, that it may have such ends as are both perfective of human nature, and suitable to an infinitely holy Being to pursue. We are never to mix these two together, or to imagine that the condition, upon which justification is offered to us, is the consideration that moves God; as if our holiness, faith, or obedience, were the moving cause of our justification ;* or that God justifies

Faith is the only hand which putteth on Christ unto justification; and Christ the only garment, which, being so put on, covereth the shame of our defiled natures, hideth the imperfection of our works, preserveth us blameless in the sight of God, before whom, otherwise, the weakness of our faith were cause sufficient to make us culpable, yea, to shut us from the kingdom of heaven, where nothing that is not absolute can enter.'-Hooker.

Justification is the office of God only, and is not a thing which we render unto him, but which we receive of him not which we give to him, but which we take of him, by his free mercy, and by the only merits of his most dearly beloved Son, our only Redeemer, Saviour, and Justifier, Jesus Christ: so that the true understanding of this doctrine, we be justified freely by faith without works, or that we be justified by faith in Christ only, is not, that this our own act to believe in Christ, or this our faith in Christ, which is within us, doth justify us, and deserve our justification unto us (for that were to count ourselves to be justified by some act or virtue that is within ourselves); but the true understanding and meaning thereof is, that although we hear God's word and believe it, although we have faith, hope, charity, repentance, dread, and fear of God within us, and do never so many works thereunto: yet we must renounce the merit of all our said virtues, of faith,

M

XI.

ART. us, because he sees that we are truly just: for though it is not to be denied, but that in some places of the New Testament, justification may stand in that sense, because the word in its true signification will bear it; yet in these two Epistles, in which it is largely treated of, nothing is plainer than that the design is to shew us what it is that brings us to the favour of God, and to a state of pardon and acceptation: so that justification in those places stands in opposition to accusation and condemnation.

The next term to be explained is faith; which in the New Testament stands generally for the complex of Christianity, in opposition to the law, which stands as generally for the complex of the whole Mosaical dispensation. So that the faith of Christ is equivalent to this, the gospel of Christ; because Christianity is a foederal religion, founded on God's part, on the promises that he has made to us, and on the rules he has set us; and on our part, on our believing that revelation, our trusting to those promises, and our setting ourselves to follow those rules: the believing this revelation, and that great article of it, of Christ's being the Son of God, and the true Messias, that came to reveal his Father's will, and to offer himself up to be the sacrifice of this new covenant, is often represented as the great and only condition of the covenant on our part; but still this faith must receive the whole gospel, the precepts as well as the promises of it, and receive Christ as a Prophet to teach, and a King to rule, as well as a Priest to save us.

By faith only, is not to be meant faith as it is separated from the other evangelical graces and virtues; but faith, as it is opposite to the rites of the Mosaical law: for that was the great question that gave occasion to St. Paul's writing so fully upon this head; since many Judaizing Christians, as they acknowledged Christ to be the true Messias, so they thought that the law of Moses was still to retain its force: in Rom. iii. opposition to whom St. Paul says, that we are justified by

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Gal. ii. 16.

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hope, charity, and all other virtues and good deeds, which we either have done, shall do, or can do, as things that be far too weak, and insufficient, and imperfect, to deserve remission of our sins, and our justification; and therefore we must trust only in God's mercy, and that sacrifice which our High-priest and Saviour Christ Jesus, the Son of God, once offered for us upon the cross, to obtain thereby God's grace and remission, as well of our original sin in baptism, as of all actual sin committed by us after our baptism, if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly to him again. So that as St. John Baptist, although he were never so virtuous and godly a man, yet in this matter of forgiving of sin, he did put the people from him, and appointed them unto Christ, saying thus unto them, Behold, yonder is the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world: even so, as great and as godly a virtue as the lively faith is, yet it putteth us from itself, and remitteth or appointeth us into Christ, for to have only by him remission of our sins, or justification. So that our faith in Christ (as it were) saith unto us thus, It is not I that take away your sins, but it is Christ only, and to him only I send you for that purpose, forsaking therein all your good virtues, words, thoughts, and works, and only putting your trust in Christ.' Homily of the Salvation of Mankind: Second Part.-[ED.]

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faith, without the works of the law.' It is plain that he ART. means the Mosaical dispensation, for he had divided all mankind into those who were in the law,' and those who were Rom. ii. without the law,' that is, into Jews and Gentiles. Nor had St. 12. Paul any occasion to treat of any other matter in those Epistles, or to enter into nice abstractions, which became not one that was to instruct the world in order to their salvation: those metaphysical notions are not easily apprehended by plain men, not accustomed to such subtilties, and are of very little value, when they are more critically distinguished: yet when it seems some of those expressions were wrested to an ill sense and use, St. James treats of the same matter, but with this great difference, that though he says expressly that 'a man is justified by his works, and not by faith only; James ii. yet he does not say, by the works of the law; so that he does not at all contradict St. Paul; the works that he mentions not being the circumcision or ritual observances of Abraham, but his offering up his son Isaac, which St. Paul had reckoned a part of the faith of Abraham: this shews that he did not intend to contradict the doctrine delivered by St. Paul, but only to give a true notion of the faith that justifies; that it is not a bare believing, such as devils are capable of, but such a believing as exerted itself in good works. So that the faith mentioned by St. Paul is the complex of all Christianity; whereas that mentioned by St. James is a bare believing, without a life suitable to it. And as it is certainly true that we are taken into the favour of God, upon our receiving the whole gospel, without observing the Mosaical precepts; so it is as certainly true, that a bare professing or giving credit to the truth of the gospel, without our living suitably to it, does not give us a right to the favour of God. And thus it appears that these two pieces of the New Testament, when rightly understood, do in no wise contradict, but agree well with one another.

In the last place, we must consider the signification of good works: by them are not to be meant some voluntary and assumed pieces of severity, which are no where enjoined in the gospel, that arise out of superstition, and that feed pride and hypocrisy: these are so far from deserving the name of good works, that they have been in all ages the methods of imposture, and of impostors, and the arts by which they have gained credit and authority. By good works therefore are meant acts of true holiness, and of sincere obedience to the laws of the gospel.

The terms being thus explained, I shall next distinguish between the questions arising out of this matter, that are only about words, and those that are more material and important. If any man fancy that the remission of sins is to be considered as a thing previous to justification, and distinct from it, and acknowledge that to be freely given in Christ Jesus; and that

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ART. in consequence of this there is such a grace infused, that thereupon the person becomes truly just, and is considered as such by God: this, which must be confessed to be the doctrine of a great many in the church of Rome, and which seems to be that established at Trent, is indeed very visibly different from the style and design of those places of the New Testament, in which this matter is most fully opened: but yet after all it is but a question about words; for if that which they call remission of sins, be the same with that which we call justification; and if that which they call justification be the same with that which we call sanctification, then here is only a strife of words; yet even in this we have the scriptures clearly of our side; so that we hold the form of sound words, from which they have departed. The scripture speaks of sanctification as a thing different from, and subsequent to, 1 Cor. vi. justification. Now ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified.' And since justification, and the being in the love and favour of God, are in the New Testament one and the same thing, the remission of sins must be an act of God's favour: for we cannot imagine a middle state of being neither accepted of him, nor yet under his wrath, as if the remission of sins were merely an extinction of the guilt of sin without any special favour. If therefore this remission of sins is acknowledged to be given freely to us through Jesus Christ, this is that which we affirm to be justification, though under another name: we do also acknowledge that our natures must be sanctified and renewed, that so God may take pleasure in us, when his image is again visible upon us; and this we call sanctification; which we acknowledge to be the constant and inseparable effect of justification: so that as to this, we agree in the same doctrine, only we differ in the use of the terms; in which we have the phrase of the New Testament clearly with us.

But there are two more material differences between us: it is a tenet in the church of Rome, that the use of the sacraments, if men do not put a bar to them, and if they have only imperfect acts of sorrow accompanying them, does so far complete those weak acts, as to justify us.* This we do utterly deny, as a doctrine that tends to enervate all religion; and to make the sacraments, that were appointed to be the solemn acts of religion, for quickening and exciting our piety, and for conveying grace to us, upon our coming devoutly to them, become means to flatten and deaden us; as if they were of the nature of charms, which, if they could be come at, though

Si quis dixerit, sacramenta novæ legis non continere gratiam, quam signifi cant, aut gratiam ipsam non ponentibus obicem non conferre, quasi signa tantum externa sint, acceptæ per fidem gratiæ, vel justitiæ, et notæ quidam Christianæ professionis, quibus apud homines discernuntur fideles ab infidelibus: Anathema sit.' 'Si quis dixerit, per ipsa novæ legis sacramenta ex opere operato non confern gratiam, sed solam fidem divinæ promissionis ad gratiam consequendam sufficere Anathema sit.' Conc. Trident. canon. et decret. Sessio viii. Can, vi. et viii.—[ED.

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