278 ON JUSTIFICATION.
CHAPTER XIV.
The exclusion of all sorts of worlcs from an interest in justification — What is in- tended by " the law," and the " works " of it, in the epistles of Paul.
We shall take our fourth argument from the express exclusion of all works, of luhat sort soever, from our justification before God. For this alone is that which we plead, — namely, that no acts or works of our own are the causes or conditions of our justification; but that the whole of it is resolved into the free grace of God, through Jesus Christ, as the mediator and surety of the covenant. To this purpose the Scripture speaks expressly. Rom. iii. 28, " Therefore we con- clude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law." Rom. iv. 5, " But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Rom. xi. 6, " If it be of grace, then is it no more of works." Gal. ii. 16, " Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justi- fied." Eph. ii. 8, 9, '■' For by gi'ace are ye saved through faith
not of works, lest any man should boast." Tit. iii. 5, " Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us."
These and the like testimonies are express, and in positive terms assert all that we contend for. And I am persuaded that no un- prejudiced person, whose mind is not prepossessed with notions and distinctions whereof not the least tittle is offered unto them from the texts mentioned, nor elsewhere, can but judge that the law, in every sense of it, and all sorts of works whatever, that at any time, or by any means, sinners or believers do or can perform, are, not in this or that sense, but every way and in all senses, excluded from our justi- fication before God. And if it be so, it is the righteousness of Christ alone that we must betake ourselves unto, or this matter must cease for ever. And this inference the apostle himself makes from one of the testimonies before mentioned, — namely, that of Gal. ii. 19-21 ; for he adds upon it, " I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God ; for if righteous- ness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain."
Our adversaries are extremely divided amongst themselves, and
"WORKS EXCLUDED IN JUSTIFICATION. 279
can come unto no consistency, as to tlie sense and meaning of the apostle in these assertions; for what is proper and obvious unto the understanding of all men, especially from the opposition that is made between the law and works on the one hand, and faith, grace, and Christ on the other (which are opposed as inconsistent in this matter of our justification), they will not allow ; nor can do so without the ruin of the opinions they plead for. Wherefore, their various con- jectures shall be examined, as well to show their inconsistency among themselves by whom the truth is opposed, as to confirm our present argument : —
1. Some say it is the ceremonial law alone, and the works of it, that are intended; or the law as given unto Moses on mount Sinai, containing that entire covenant that was afterward to be abolished. This was of old the common opinion of the schoolmen, though it be now generally exploded. And the opinion lately contended for, that the apostle Paul excludes justification from the works of the law, or excludes works absolutely perfect, and sinless obedience, not because no man can yield that perfect obedience which the law requires, but because the law itself which he intends coidd not justify any by the observation of it, is nothing but the renovation of this obsolete no- tion, that it is the ceremonial law only, or, which upon the matter is all one, the law given on mount Sinai, abstracted from the grace of the promise, which could not justify any in the observation of its rites and commands. But of all other conjectures, this is the most impertinent and contradictory unto the design of the apostle ; and is therefore rejected by Bellarmine himself For the apostle treats of that law whose doers shall be justified, Rom. ii. 13; and the authors of this opinion would have it to be a law that can justify none of them that do it. That law he intends whereby is the knowledge of sm ; for he gives this reason Avhy we cannot be justified by the works of it, — namely, because "by it is the knowledge of sin," chap. iii. 20: and by what law is the knowledge of sin he expressly declares, where he affirms that he " had not known lust, except the law had said. Thou shalt not covet," chap. vii. 7 ; which is the moral law alone. That law he designs which stops the mouth of all sinners, and makes all the world obnoxious unto the judgment of God, chap. iii. 19; which none can do but the law written in the heart of men at their creation, chap. ii. 14, 15; — that law, which " if a man do the works of it, he shall live in them," Gal. iii. 12, Rom. x. 5; and which brings all men under the curse for sin. Gal. iii 10; — the law that is estab- lished by faith, and not made void, Rom. iii. 31 ; which the ceremonial law is not, nor the covenant of Sinai ; — the law whose righteousness is " to be fulfilled in us," Rom. viii. 4. And the instance which the apostle gives of justification without the works of that law which he