Of Free Justification by Christ, Book 1 · Part 8
Upon what account, and how Faith justifies Fallen Sinners.
NOW because I have demonstrated, what the power of Faith is, and what it performeth, I must of necessity explain upon what account, and for what cause Faith procureth unto it self so great efficacy For what cause the power of Iustifying is attributed unto Faith.and power of Iustifying; how it is said to Iustifie alone without Works, and what Men the same Iustifies, whether the righteous or the wicked? If the righteous, what need is there now of Iustification or Faith, when the Law is sufficient? If the wicked, whether those that are penitent and converted, or the impenitent and rebellious? If the Faith of Christ justifies the penitent, frees them from guilt, and makes them righteous of unrighteous, which neither you your self can deny: Why then do you inveigh against Luther so unmodestly and undeservedly? Does Luther either say or teach any An unjust complaint against Luther.other thing? Where does he at any time let loose the Reins to sin, or promise liberty to the wicked, or preach Iustification otherways, than to those, who being reformed by Repentance, breathe after Christ, and joyn themselves to him by Faith? What? Will you shut out those from all hope of pardon? I trow not: And what remedy then will you shew them? Will you send us to the Faith of Christ, or to the Sentence of the Law to heal our wounds? What if the Law gives no help here, and there is not any other thing in man, that can help righteousness once violated, Osor. de justit. lib. 2. p. 29. Osorius against Luther.except Faith only placed in Christ, which neither you your self can deny: And if this very Faith brings Salvation to none, but those that deplore the sins they have committed, which together with you Luther affirms, to what purpose are those out-cries against Luther so Tragical, and raised without any cause? Wherefore then dost thou deceive us, O Luther? For when thou d'dst condemn pious tears, and didst cast reproaches upon wise sorrowfulness, and didst plead that all works were not only unprofitable, but pernicious. And presently going on in the same stile, and waxing more violent. For when (say you) thou didst put so much in faith, that thou saidst, there was help enough in that only; the sense of thy words seems to be this: That Salvation is prepared for all without grief, without the lessening of Riches by communicating to the Poor, without the detestation of a fault committed. And after the interval of a few words. But if you think that a Wicked Man, though be flyes not at all from his wickedness, obtains righteousness by Faith only, who hath been more absurd, who hath been more out of his wits than thou since the Creation of Mankind?
That I on the other side, Osorius may answer to these things, but in An Answer for Luther against Osorius.a few words: If that were true, which you falsly say of Luther, perhaps you might gainsome praise both of a Learned Orator, and an Honest Accuser. But now seeing he never so much as dreamed of these things, neither can you bring forth one word from so many of his Sayings and Deeds to maintain your unjust accusation; I say not in your words, Who hath been more absurd, who hath been more out of his wits than you since the Creation of Man? But if I may be allowed to say this, speaking very modestly, that you are too much forgetful, not only of your duty, but also of the argument, in which you are exercised and: whilst you are writing of Righteousness, you do so far against all Righteousness most basely bespatter and shamefully lash a Godly Man, a Servant of Christ, that never deserved ill at your hands, with feigned Lyes and Reproaches, and all kind of abuses; either through ignorance finding fault with the things you have not read, or wresting those things to a wrong Sense, which you are not willing to understand in a right Sense. What if the Eternal possession of Salvation must not be The unjust slander of Osorius, and Andradius against Luther.hoped for from any thing else but works of Righteousness, as chiefly you Osorius do teach, (that I may comprehend also Hosius, and your familiar Friend Andradius in the same Category! What hope can you have of your own Salvation from these works of yours; to wit, your most false Accusations, and reproachful Libels, in which, against Law and Right, breaking the bonds of all Righteousness, you vomit forth those lying slanders against your Neighbour, and that in the publick Theatre of the World, for no valuable cause, nor for any true reason, nor upon any other account, but because perhaps you are stirred up with your own immoderate passion.
Luther indeed did write of Faith, I know, and confess it, but what A defence of Luther.then? What fault I pray you did he commit in so doing? What hath he deserved? Why might not he as well write of Faith, as you of Righteousness? but perhaps that displeases you, not that he did write of Faith, but because attributing too much thereunto, he refers the whole of our Righteousness to this Faith. Be it so, and you on the contrary refer all to the works of the Law, which of you two is worthiest to be accused? Which comes nearest to Evangelical Doctrine? You who refer all to, and comprehend all in the observance and study of the Law, or he that refers unto, and comprehends all in A twofold manner of Righteousness mention'd by Paul, the one received, the other rejected. Philip. 3. Righteousness of the Law, Righteousness of Faith, in Faith of God.the Faith of Christ? Let Paul be called for a Witness and Umpire between you, who though he himself was very careful in observing the Law of God, in his Epistle to the Philippians, proposing a twofold manner of Righteousness, the one of the Law, and the other of Faith, he judges the latter to be so much better, and prefers it so far before the other, that he esteemed all those other things of his own, though otherwise excellent and praise-worthy things, being placed in the study of the Law of God, yet he esteemed them all as loss, yea as dung, for the excellency of the knowledge of Iesus Christ, that he might be found in him, having on the Righteousness, not which is of the Law, but which is of the Faith of Christ, which is the Righteousness of God by Faith, &c. What then? shall you bring us away from this faith, which is placed in Christ, and call us back to that dung contrary to the will of Christ, and the Doctrine of Paul; that by your teaching and guideance we may be found to possess a righteousness, not that which is placed in Faith, but that which is only placed in the Law? And are you upon this account so outragiously invective against Luther, because he chose rather to follow Pauls opinion, than yours in this point of Salvation? No, but there is some other thing in the wind, which puts you in such a heat of contending, not because Luther attributes Righteousness to faith, to which you your self use sometimes to attribute very much, but because he so shuts up our Salvation in this faith alone, that he seems wholly to exclude and despise the excellent works of Charity and labours after Piety, in the point of Iustification and Righteousness before God.
In Academical exercises, where arguments are examined according The Argument of Osorius drawn from dictum secundum quid, to dictum simpliciter. Making that to be true in the general, which is only so in particular.to the Rules of Logick, those conclusions are justly found fault with, that proceed from a thing said in particular, to prove a thing said in the general, which thing there is no man, that is in any degree exercised in these matters, but he may easily perceive in your Sophistry.
But if Luther had ever been a Man that had simply condemned the commendable diligence in good works, or honest actions of vertues; I should not save him from your lashes, or from being accounted worthy of such Ornaments as your modesty puts upon him, that he might be judged the plague of his Countrey, a Osor. lib. 2. p. 28.turbulent Person, and disturber of Religion.
Add hereunto, if you please, the other flowers of your Satyrical Eloquence, The Reproaches of Osorius cast upon Luther.under which you expose him in such an appearance or disguise, as one of the most cruel, and dreadful Monsters, that ever was in the World.