§. II.
Observat. The Method of Justification taken by the Church of Rome.That this Doctrine of Justification, hath been and is greatly vitiated in the Church of Rome, is not by us questioned; though our Adversaries, who for want of better Arguments do often make Lies their Refuge, have not spared in this Respect to stigmatize us with Popery, but how untruly will hereafter appear. For to speak little of their Meritum ex condigno, which was no Doubt a very common Doctrine of the Romish Church, especially before Luther, though most of their modern Writers, especially in their Controversies with Protestants, do partly deny it, partly qualify it, and seem to state the Matter only as if they were Propagators and Pleaders for good Works by the others denied; yet if we look to the Effects of this Doctrine among them, as they appear in the Generality of their Church Members, not in Things disapproved, but highly approved and commended by their Father the Pope and all his Clients, as the most beneficial Casualty of all his Revenue, The Pope’s Doctrine of Merits, the most beneficial of all his Revenue.we shall find that Luther did not without great Ground oppose himself to them in this Matter: And if he had not run himself into another Extreme, of which hereafter, his Work would have stood the better. For in this, as in most other Things, he is more to be commended for what he pulled down of Babylon, than for what he built of his own. Whatever then the Papists may pretend, or even some good Men among them may have thought, Experience sheweth, and it is more than manifest by the universal and approved Practice of their People, that they place not their Justification so much in Works that are truly and morally good, and in the being truly renewed and sanctified in the Mind, as in such Things as are either nor Good nor Evil, or may truly be called Evil, and can no otherwise be reckoned Good than because the Pope pleases to call them so. Papists Justification depends upon the Pope’s Bulls.So that if the Matter be well sifted, it will be found, that the greatest Part of their Justification depends upon the Authority of his Bulls, and not upon the Power, Virtue, and Grace of Christ revealed in the Heart, and renewing of it, as will appear. Proof 1. Their Sacraments.First, From their Principle concerning their Sacraments, which they say confer Grace ex opere operato. So that if a Man partake but of them, he thereby obtains Remission of Sin, though he remains as he was; the Virtue of the Sacraments making up the Want that is in the Man. So that this Act of Submission and Faith to the Laws of the Church, and not any real inward Change, is that which justifieth him. As for Example; Papists Penance.if a Man make use of the Sacrament, as they call it, of Penance, so as to tell over his Sins to a Priest, though he have not true Contrition, which the Lord hath made absolutely necessary for penitent Sinners, but only Attrition, a Figment of their own, that is, if he be sorry he hath sinned, not out of any Love to God, or his Law which he hath transgressed, but for fear of Punishment, yet doth the Virtue of the Sacrament, as they affirm, procure to him Remission of Sins; so that being absolved by the Priest, he stands accepted and justified in the Sight of God. This Man’s Justification then proceedeth not from his being truly penitent, and in any Measure inwardly changed and renewed by the working of God’s Grace in his Heart, but merely from the Virtue of the Sacrament, and Authority of the Priest, who hath pronounced him absolved; so that his Justification is from somewhat without him, and not within him.
Proof 2. Papist Indulgences.Secondly, This will yet more appear in the Matter of Indulgences, where Remission of all Sins, not only past but for Years to come, is annexed to the visiting such and such Churches and Reliques, saying such and such Prayers; so that the Person that so doth is presently cleared from the Guilt of his Sin, and justified and accepted in the Sight of God. As for Example: He that in the great Jubilee will go to Rome, and present himself before the Gate of Peter and Paul, and there receive the Pope’s Blessing; or he that will go a Pilgrimage to James’s Sepulchre in Spain, or to Mary of Loreto, is upon the Performance of those Things promised Forgiveness of Sins. Now if we ask them the Reason how such Things as are not morally good in themselves come to have Virtue? They have no other Answer but because of the Church and Pope’s Authority, who being the great Treasurer of the Magazine of Christ’s Merits, lets them out upon such and such Conditions. Papists Mass, what it is?Thus also the Invention of saying Mass is made a chief Instrument of Justification; for in it they pretend to offer Christ daily to the Father a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the Living and Dead: So that a Man for Money can procure Christ thus to be offered for him when he pleases; by which Offering he is said to obtain Remission of Sins, and to stand justified in the Sight of God. From all which, and much more of this Nature which might be mentioned, it doth appear, that the Papists place their Justification, not so much in any Work of Holiness really brought forth in them, and real forsaking of Iniquity, as in the mere Performance of some Ceremonies, and a blind Belief which their Teachers have begotten in them, that the Church and the Pope having the absolute Dispensation of the Merits of Christ, have Power to make these Merits effectual for the Remission of Sins, and Justification of such as will perform those Ceremonies. This is the true and real Method of Justification taken by the Generality of the Church of Rome, and highly commended by their publick Preachers, especially the Monks, in their Sermons to the People, of which I myself have been an Ear and an Eye-witness; however some of their modern Writers have laboured to qualify it in their Controversies. Luther and the Protestants opposing the Pope’s Doctrine of Works, fell into the other Extreme, of no good Works necessary to Justification.This Doctrine Luther and the Protestants then had good Reason to deny and oppose; though many of them ran into another Extreme, so as to deny good Works to be necessary to Justification, and to preach up not only Remission of Sins, but Justification by Faith alone, without all Works, however good. So that Men do not obtain their Justification according as they are inwardly sanctified and renewed, but are justified merely by believing that Christ died for them; and so some may be perfectly justified, though they be lying in gross Wickedness; as appears by the Example of David, who they say was fully and perfectly justified while he was lying in the gross Sins of Murder and Adultery. As then the Protestants have sufficient Ground to quarrel and confute the Papists concerning those many Abuses in the Matter of Justification, shewing how the Doctrine of Christ is thereby vitiated and overturned, and the Word at God made void by many and useless Traditions, the Law of God neglected, while foolish and needless Ceremonies are prized and followed, through a false Opinion of being justified by the Performance of them; and the Merits and Sufferings of Christ, which is the only Sacrifice appointed of God for Remission of Sins, derogated from, by the setting up of a daily Sacrifice never appointed by God, and chiefly devised out of Covetousness to get Money by; Papists Device to get Money.so the Protestants on the other Hand, by not rightly establishing and holding forth the Doctrine of Justification according as it is delivered in the holy Scriptures, have opened a Door for the Papists to accuse them, as if they were Neglecters of good Works, Enemies to Mortification and Holiness, such as esteem themselves justified while lying in great Sins: By which Kind of Accusations, for which too great Ground hath been given out of the Writings of some rigid Protestants, the Reformation hath been greatly defamed and hindered, and the Souls of many insnared. Whereas, whoever will narrowly look into the Matter, may observe these Debates to be more in Specie than in Genere, seeing both do upon the Matter land in one; and like two Men in a Circle, who though they go sundry Ways, yet meet at last; in the same Center.
Papists Belief of Justification meets in the same Center with the—For the Papists say, They obtain Remission of Sins, and are justified by the Merits of Christ, as the same are applied unto them in the Use of the Sacraments of the Church, and are dispensed in the Performance of such and such Ceremonies, Pilgrimages, Prayers, and Performances, though there be not any inward renewing of the Mind, nor knowing of Christ inwardly formed; yet they are remitted and made righteous ex opere operato, because of the Power and Authority accompanying the Sacraments and the Dispensers of them.
—Protestants Belief. So saith the Westminster Confession of Faith. Chap. 11. Sect. 1.The Protestants say, That they obtain Remission of Sins, and stand justified in the Sight of God by Virtue of the Merits and Sufferings of Christ, not by infusing Righteousness into them, but by pardoning their Sins, and by accounting and accepting their Persons as righteous, they resting on him and his Righteousness by Faith; which Faith, the Act of believing, is not imputed unto them for Righteousness.
So the Justification of neither here is placed in any inward Renewing of the Mind, or by Virtue of any spiritual Birth, or Formation of Christ in them; but only by a bare Application of the Death and Sufferings of Christ outwardly performed for them: Whereof the one lays hold on a Faith resting upon them, and hoping to be justified by them alone; the other by the saying of some outward Prayers and Ceremonies, which they judge makes the Death of Christ effectual unto them. I except here, being unwilling to wrong any, what Things have been said as to the Necessity of inward Holiness, either by some modern Papists, or some modern Protestants, who, in so far as they have laboured after a Midst betwixt these two Extremes, have come near to the Truth, as by some Citations out of them hereafter to be mentioned will appear: Though this Doctrine hath not since the Apostasy, so far as ever I could observe, been so distinctly and evidently held forth according to the Scripture’s Testimony, as it hath pleased God to reveal it and preach it forth in this Day, by the Witnesses of his Truth whom he hath raised to that End; which Doctrine, though it be briefly held forth and comprehended in the Thesis itself, State of the Controversy.yet I shall a little more fully explain, and shew the State of the Controversy as it stands betwixt us and those that now oppose us.