A Treatise of Justification, Book 6 · Chapter 7
CAP. VII. Of the acts or effects of faith: and first, whether faith doth justifie, or only dispose to justification. Secondly, whether it doth justifie formally.
§. I.
THe next controversie is concerning that act or effectWhether justifying faith doth onelyonly dispose a man to justification. of justifying faith, in respect whereof it is called justifying faith. Of this there are three Questions, the first, whether Faith doth indeed justifie, or onelyonly dispose a man to justification. Secondly, whether it justifie formally, as part of inherent righteousnesse; or instrumentally, as the hand to receive Christ, who is our righteous…esse. Thirdly, whether it justifie alone. The assertions of the Papists in the two former questions doe not seeme to …ang well together. For if faith goe before justification disposing a man thereto, how doth it justifie formally, as part of that righteousnesse whereby a man is, as they speake, formally just. And if no dispositions b…e required to justification, to what purpose doe they tell us, that a man must be disposed and prepared by faith and other virtues. For howsoever in their speculations they require preparative dispositions to justification; yet in their practise they seeme to require …. For their justification which is in fact and in deed, is restrained to their Sacraments, as, namely, to Bap…. And their Sacraments justifie ex … …, and therefore without necessity of any foregoing dispositions. For if any virtuous or good disposition were required, then should their Sacraments justifie, not ex … …, but ex … …. OnelyOnly they require, that he who is by the Sacrament to be justified, doe not … … … lis …, that is, interpose the obstacls of some mortall sinne. And what be these dispositions which must goe before justification?
§. II. Forsooth, there are seven, which according to the decree aSess. 6. c. 6. Seven. dispositions required before justification, of which vide infra ca. 10, 11, 12.of the Councell of Trent, Bellarmine reckoneth, De justif. lib. 1. ca. 13. to prove, that faith doth not justifie alone, because the other sixe also doe dispose men thereunto. The seven are, faith, feare, hope, love, penitencie, a purpose and desire to receive the Sacrament, a purpose of amendment of life. All which doe but prepare and dispose a man. But it is the Sacrament, as, namely, of BaptismebConc. Trid. Sess. 6. cap. 7., that doth actually justifie, and without which no man is justified. But I would gladly know, whether these seven preparatives, be fruits of grace, or works of nature. Not of grace, for, as they teach, no man hath grace before Iustification: What then? they are the fruits of nature holpen, I wot not, by what grace: which if it were true would not onelyonly prove the maine assertion of the Pelagians, Gratiam secundùm merita dari, or as in other words it is expressed in the Councell of cSess. 6. ca. 7.Trent, Secundùm propriam cajusque dispositionem & operationem. For though, according to their doctrine, these preparations are not merits of condignity, as they say, yet they bee of congruity: but also disprove the doctrine of the Apostle, that we are justified freely by his grace. But this seemeth to me absurd, that men should have one justifying faith, and so one hope and one love, &c. going before justification, and another infused in our justification: and that by the one justifying faith going before, we should be prepared to justification; and by the other infused in our justification we should in part be formally justified. But this is certaine, that, that faith, which in order of time goeth before justification, is no true justifying faith. For that which goeth before justification, goeth also before regeneration, and what goeth before regeneration, is of nature and not of Grace. But faith in order of time goeth not before justification, though in order of nature it doth; for so soone as a man beleeveth he is justified, as Hierome saithdIn Rom. 10. 4., Talis est ille qui in Christum credidit, die qua credidit, qualis ille qui universam legem implevit. Such a one is hee that beleeveth in Christ, the very day that hee beleeveth, as hee that hath fulfilled the whole Law; nor in order of nature before regeneration; for in our regeneration it is wrought. As therefore no man hath faith who is not regenerated, so no man hath faith who is not thereby justified. The Scripture is plaine, that in Christ whosoever beleeveth foreign is justified, Act. 13. 39. He that beleeveth in Christ is passed from death to life, Ioh. 5. 24. & 6. 54. which passage from death to life is justification; whereby, as themselves eConc. Trid. sess. 6. cap. 4.teach, a man is translated from the state of death and damnation, into a state of Grace and Salvation. Faith therefore actually justifieth, and not disposeth onelyonly to justification.
§. III. The other question is, whether faith doth justifie formally,Secondly, whether faith doth justifie formally as they speake, as being a part of inherent righteousnesse; or instrumentally only, as the hand to receive Christ, who is our righteousnesse. The Romane Catholikes hold …he former; the true Catholikes, the latter. But the former I have sufficiently disproved before, and proved the latter. For if we be not justified by any grace or righteousnesse inherent in our selves, or performed by our selves, which I have before fLib. 4.by many undeniable arguments demonstrated: then it followeth necessarily, that we are not justified by faith, as it is a gift or grace, an act, or habit, or quality inherent in us, or performed by us. And if we be justified by the righteousnesse of Christ onelyonly, which being out of us in him is imputed to those who receive it by faith, which also before gLib. 4. & 5.I invincibly proved: then also it followeth by necessary consequence, that wee are justified by faith, onelyonly as it is the instrument or hand to apprehend or receive Christ, who is our righteousnesse. Wherefore where faith is said to justifie, or to bee imputed to righteousnesse, it must of necessity be understood relatively, and in respect of the object, to which purpose, both justification, and all other benefits, which we receive by Christ, are attributed to faith, as I have shewedhSupr. cap. 4. §. 6. before. Not that faith it selfe worketh these things, but because by it wee receive Christ, and with him all his merits and benefits. And for the same cause the faith of all the faithfull, though unequall in degrees, in some greater, in some lesse, is foreign a-like precious in the righteousnesse of God, and our Saviour Iesus Christ, 2 Pet. 1. 1. which is an evidence, that faith doth not justifie in respect of its owne dignity or worthinesse, but in respect of the object, which it doth receive; which being the most perfect righteousnesse of Christ, unto which nothing can be added, is one and the same to all that receive it. Of this see more, lib. 1. cap. 2. §. 10.
§. IV. Here now the Papists, because wee deny faith to justifie inThe Papists cavill, that we debate faith. respect of its owne worthinesse and merit, take occasion to inveighiBellar. De justif. l. 1. c. 12. against us, as if we made it Titulum sine re, and as it were a matter of nothing. Which is a malicious, and yet but a frivolous cavill. For first§. Ita que sensum. in respect of justification; we acknowledge it to bee the onelyonly instrument or hand to receive Christ, to be the condition of the Covenant of Grace, to which the Promises of remission of sinnes and of Salvation are made, without which the promises of the Gospell doe not appertaine unto us, and without which our blessed Saviour doth not save us. Secondly, in respect of Sanctification, wee attribute all that and more, which the Papists ascribe unto it in respect of their imaginary justification. That it is the beginning, the foundation, and root of all inherent righteousnesse; the mother of all other sanctifying Graces, which purifieth the heart, and worketh by love, without which it is impossible to please God, without which, whatsoever is done, is sinne.
§. V. But howsoever here the Papists would seeme to plead for faith, yet the truth is, that, as they have abolished the benefit of justification, as it is taught in the holy Scriptures, so with it, they have taken away the justifying faith. For though they retaine the name, yet in their doctrine there is no such thing. For first, to faith they doe not ascribe the power to justifie, but only to be a disposition, one among seven, even such a one as servile feare is, of a man unto inherent righteousnesse, or to the grace of Sanctification, it selfe being not as yet a justifying or sanctifying grace. Secondly, that faith, being infused, becommeth the beginning, and a part of formall inherent righteousnesse. But so small a part they assigne unto it, that they say, that the habit of formall righteousnesse differeth not from the habit of charity: so that in justification it hath no use at all, and in sanctification charity is all in all: which is a manifest evidence, that the Church of Rome is fallen away from the ancient doctrine of the faith. For both Scriptures and Fathers every where ascribe justification to faith, and not to Charitie: to faith, and not to workes: but the Papists ascribe the first justification to charitie, which they make to be the onelyonly formall cause of justification, which, as themselves teach, is but one; and the second justification they assigne to workes.