every such believer has as valid a claim to eternal life as he would have had, had he personally done all that the law demands. Thus broad and firm is the foundation which God has laid for the hopes of his people. It is the rock of ages; Jehovah our righteousness.
§ 8. Relation of Faith to Justification.
All who profess to be Christians admit the doctrine of justifi- cation by faith. There are different views, however, as to the relation between faith and justification, as has been already inti- mated.
1. Pelagians and rationalists teach that faith in God's being and perfection, or in the great principles of moral and religious truth, is the source of that moral excellence on account of which we are accepted of God. It is perhaps only a different way of expressing the same idea, to say that God, in the case of Abra- ham, and, therefore, of other men, accepts the pious state of mind involved in the exercise of faith or confidence in God, in lieu of perfect righteousness.
2. Romanists make faith mere assent. It does not justify as a virtue, or as apprehending the offered righteousness of Christ. It is neither the formal nor the instrumental cause of justification, it is merely the predisposing or occasional cause. A man assents to the truth of Christianity, and to the more spe- cial truth that the Church is a divine institution for saving men. He therefore comes to the Church and receives the sacrament of baptism, by which, " ex opere operato," a habit of grace, or spirit- ual life is infused into the soul, which is the formal cause of jus- tification ; i. e., it renders the soul inherently just or holy. In this sense the sinner may be said to be justified by faith. This is the first justification. After the man is thus rendered holy or regenerated, then the exercises of faith have real merit, and en- ter into the ground of his second justification, by which he be- comes entitled to eternal life. But here faith stands on a level with other Christian graces. It is not the only, nor the most important ground of justification. It is in this view inferior to love, from which faith indeed derives all its virtue as a Chris- tian grace. It is then " fides formata," i. e., faith of which love is the essence, the principle which gives it character.
166 part m. Ch. xvn.— justification.
The Romish Doctrine.
According to the Romish scheme (1.) God is the efficient cause of justification, as it is by his power or supernatural grace that the soul is made just. (2.) Christ is the meritorious cause, as it is for his sake God grants this saving grace, or influence of the Spirit to the children of men. (3.) Inherent righteousness is the formal cause, since thereby the soul is made really just or holy. (4.) Faith is the occasional and predisposing cause, as it leads the sinner to seek justification (regeneration), and disposes God to grant the blessing. In this aspect it has the merit of congruity only, not that of condignity. (5.) Baptism is the essential instru- mental cause, as it is only through or by baptism that inherent righteousness is infused or justification is effected. So much for the first justification. After this justification, which makes the sinner holy, then, (6.) Good works, all the fruits and exercises of the new life, have real merit and constitute the ground of the Christian's title to eternal life.
The language of the Council of Trent on this subject is as fol- lows : " Hujus justificationis causae sunt, finalis quidem, gloria Dei et Christi, ac vita aeterna : efficiens vero, misericors Deus, qui gratuito abluit et sanctificat, signans et ungens Spiritu promissi- onis sancto, ., . . . meritoria autem dilectissimus unigenitus suus, Dominus noster, Jesus Christus, qui, cum essemus inimici, prop- ter nimiam caritatem, qua dilexit nos, sua sanctissima passione in ligno crucis nobis justificationem [i. e., regeneration] meruit et pro nobis Deo Patri satisfecit : instrumentalis item, sacramentum baptismi, quod est sacramentum fidei, sine qua nulli unquam con- tigit justificatio : demum unica formalis causa est justitia Dei, non qua ipse Justus est, sed qua nos justos facit : qua videlicet ab eo donati, renovamur spiritu mentis nostras, et non modo reputa- mur, sed vere justi nominamur, et sumus, justitiam in nobis re- cipientes, unusquisque suam secundum mensuram, quam Spiritus Sanctus partitur singulis prout vult, et secundum propriam cujus- que dispositionem et cooperationem." Again, it is said : " Quae enim justitia nostra dicitur, quia per earn nobis inhaerentem justificamur ; ilia eadem Dei est, quia a Deo nobis infunditur per Christi meritum." 1 All this relates to the first justification, or regeneration, in which the soul passes from spiritual death to spiritual life. Of the second justification, which gives a title to eternal life, Bellarmin says, 2 " Habet communis catholicorum
1 Seas, vi. cap. 7, 16; Streitwolf, Libri Symbolici, Gottingen, 1846, vol. i. pp. 24, 25, 32. 8 De Justijicatione, v. 1; DisputMiones, Paris, 1608, p. 949, a.