Catholic Theology Plain Pure Peaceable, Section 11
SECT. XI. How faith Justifieth.
198. The common ſaying that faith juſtifieth as an Inſtrument might paſs as tolerable, if too many did not ſtrain it to a wrong ſence, and raiſe Note, that when we call faith an Accepting it relateth to the Donation of the Covenant and the Donatum, which is a Jus ad beneficia: Renovation is effected by faith as a ſecond cauſe, but Pardon is Accepted by it: And we fully grant the Papiſts that Renovation and pardon go together, whatever they call them. And ſome of themſelves do ſpeak juſt as we de Remiſſione & Macula, which others are confounded about. Vid. Wotton's citations out of the Schoolmen de Macula: de Reconcil. pec. And Brianſon ſaith (in 4. q. 8. fol. 116. that ſin as …emitted or guilt, is [Tantum quaedam Relatio rationis, in quantum eſt objectum intellectus & Voluntatis divinae: Quia poſtquam commiſſit peccatum Dei voluntas ordinat ipſum ad poenum correſpondentem peccato, & Intellectus praevidet pro omni tempore donec poena debita ſit ſoluta. Videre peceata Dei, eſt ad …oenam imput…re: Avertere faciem eſt, ad poenam non reſervare: Auguſt.—Ergo ni… aliud eſt poſt actum c…ſſantem p…catis off…nſa, Macula, reatus, niſi iſta relatio rationis: S…d hujus Ordinatio ad …oenam ut eſt diſconveniens ipſi animae, dicitur ejus Macula: ut autem eſt obligatio formaliter ad iſtam poenam dicitur R…atus: Et ut eſt divinae voluntatis, &c. dic…tur Offenſa: Nil [n] aliud eſt Offendi vel Iraſci in Deo, quam v…lle Vindicare iſta poena]: But he after owneth that the culpa is another thing.unwarrantable Doctrines from it, and harden the Papiſts by unwarantable Anſwers. A Justifying Inſtrument properly is an efficient Inſtr… mental cauſe of Juſtification, which I have elſewhere too largely proved that faith is not, either Gods Inſtrument or ours, Phyſical or Moral, no… any way efficiently juſtifieth us. But juſtifying, is one thing; to Receive juſtification is another thing, and to be justified is a third. Faith i… no juſtifying act: But faith is in its Eſſence the Acceptance of an offered God, Chriſt, Spirit, for Life: This Acceptance is by the Covenant made the condition of our paſſive true Reception and Poſſeſſion of Right (before opened): To be ſuch a Condition performed, is to be a removens prohibe…s of the ſaid Reception: which is ſtrictly to be Diſpoſitio materiae recipienti… ▪ And ſo it may be called, 1. A Receiving Cauſe. 2. And a medi… or diſpoſitive Cauſe of the effect, Juſtification as Received, but not as Given: (As I ſaid Dr. Twiſſe chooſeth to call it) But this cauſa Diſpoſitiva is p… of the cauſa Materialis, viz. Qua diſpoſita: A cauſe, or more properly a condition why I receive Juſtification, and by receiving it am Justified; which is their meaning who call it A Paſſive Instrument, that is, A … ceiving Inſtrument.
199. The plain eaſie truth is, that Faiths Nature which is to be [… lieving Acceptance of Chriſt, and Life offered on that Condition] being … very eſſence is but its Aptitude to the office it hath to our Juſtification▪ by which the Queſtion is anſwered, why did God promiſe us Chriſt and Life … the Condition of faith rather than another? Becauſe of the congruity of its Nature to that office. But the formal Reaſon of its office as to our Juſtification is Its Being the performed Condition of the Covenant. And if God had choſen another condition, a condition it would have been. Now the true notion in Law being a Condition, Logicians would call this improperly a Receiving cauſe, and more properly A Receptive Diſpoſition of the matter, reducing it to Phyſical notions. But the moſt proper term is the plaineſt, [We are juſtified by that faith, which is the Believing Practical Acceptance of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, as Given us on that condition in the Baptiſmal Covenant, becauſe (or as) it is made by God the condition of his Gift thereby]. Underſtand this plain doctrine, and you have the plain truth.
200. They that ſay contrarily that Faith juſtifieth proximately as it is an Inſtrument, or a Receiving Accepting act, and not as a Condition of the Covenant, do evidently chooſe that which they vehemently oppoſe▪ viz. that the foreign credere juſtifieth: For the very foreign credere or the … of Faith, is to be an Acceptance of Christ given. But if they will to avoid this, ſay that By Faith they mean [Chriſt believed in,] then they ſay that by Receiving Christ they mean not the receiving of him, but Christ himſelf: And why then do they not ſay ſo, but trouble the world with ſuch unintelligible phraſes: But to open the ſenſeleſsneſs and co…ſequents of that Doctrine would but offend. All know that Chri… … the object is connoted as eſſential to the act of Faith.