THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
maintained that all good works of these two sorts were regarded as extralegal (cf. Deut. xv. 7 sqq.). But although they were commanded by the law, the measure and degree in which they were to be performed were left to individual initiative. The idea of " deeds of kindness " (gemiluth hasadhim) first appears in Ecclesiasticus and Tobit; these acts relate to the dead, mourners, the sick, strangers, and prisoners, and are dependent upon personal motive. They have justifying and atoning power. They are written down in books in heaven, and on the judgment day God opens the books and judges accordingly (Jubilees, xxx. 19 sqq.). Another conception is that of the garnering up of good works. On the judgment day they " awake " (IV Ezra vii. 35, 77; . In Pirke Aboth iv. 11a, vi. 9b, good works are represented as companions of the departing soul and witnesses in his favor before the judgment seat. The idea sometimes appears of the superfluity of the good works of the Fathers being vicariously accredited to Israel (IV Ezra 8, 26 sqq.).
On the expression kala or agatha erga, which occurs in the New Testament first in Matt. v. 16, cf. H.
Cremer, Wbrterbuch der neutestament-
2. The lichen Grdcitat (Gotha, 1902), and
Teaching of Zahn, Das Evangelium des Matthaus,
Jesus. p. 203 (Leipsic, 1905). The image of a
" treasure in Heaven " is used also by Jesus (Matt. vi. 20), who retains the conceptions relating to the reward for good works. The image of bookkeeping with reference to good works appears in Rev. xx. 12; that of the companionship of good works in Rev. xiv. 13. Jesus' criticism of the righteousness of good works is aimed at the presumption of claiming credit with God, at the confusion of the distinction between moral and ritualistic works, at the increasing of the necessary number of good works to an intolerable degree, and at the pride and love of glory accompanying it. The Jews commonly associated almsgiving, prayer, and fasting as types of good works. Jesus approved of fasting as an expression of a sorrowful mood, but not as a means of purification. He emphasized the importance of words as indications of the character of the spirit (Matt. xii. 36-37), but he also praised the doing of the will of God in contrast to the mere utterance of words (Matt. vii. 21, xxi. 28 sqq.). He taught also that only those acts of love are good that arise from adequate motives (Matt. xxv. 37 sqq.). In Luke x. 20 he uses the old image of a book of life, meaning that his disciples had confessed God and been chosen to salvation.
Paul was not only a man of deep religious feeling, but an active character and an ethical genius.
It is an exaggeration to assert that 3. Pauline his denial of justification by works Teaching, meant an alienation from works (A.
Schlatter, DerGlaube im N. T., pp.327 sqq., 381 sqq., Stuttgart, 1905). Paul opposes the doctrine that man may demand recompense from God for doing that which God has bidden him do. It is impiety from the standpoint of the religion of salvation and faith in Christ. He opposes to the Jewish formula, " works and faith," the principle " out of faith alone." Faith is trust in the grace of God, which alone brings salvation and would no longer
be grace if the principle " by works " were valid. The sole efficacy of predestined grace is lauded in Rom. xi. 6; its relation to works in Eph. ii. 9-10. Paul certainly valued highly the activity of Christians in works, which, religiously considered, is nothing less than God's " good works." The saving power of good works arises from the fact that at the judgment decision will be based upon them. This seems contradictory of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It will not do to regard the former of these views as a mere survival in Paul of a Jewish mode of thought. Paul not only felt that Christ was producing all those heroic works which he, Paul, was able to do through love of Christ, but he also recognized in himself freedom, power, and responsibility. He was filled with the spirit of selfsacrifice and joy because he was able to do something for the love of Christ, for which he hoped to receive not " reward " from Christ, but favor and friendly recognition. Faith in Christ as judge because of his " meekness and gentleness " (II Cor. x. 1) made the idea of man's hoping in his littleness to deserve anything of God because of his works seem less presumptuous. The ethical conception that salvation must be dependent upon activity, responsibility, and duty was developed in Paul's mind by the idea of the atonement. The pastoral letters mention frequently the idea of good works, which then passed into church doctrine and terminology. While these letters do not contain the phrase " faith and works," they do contain the phrase " faith and love."
For the evolution of the idea of justification by works see Justification. The best material bearing on the common postapostolic view of 4. Patristic good work is presented in A. Titius, and Roman Die neutestamentliche Lehre von der Catholic Seligkeit, vol. iv., chap. iv. (Tubingen, Doctrine. 1900). For the apostolic fathers, E. J. Goodspeed, Index patristicus (Leipsic, 1907) is valuable. Their ethicism is currently explained as due to Jewish influence. The significance of Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine for the Roman Catholic doctrine of good works is very great (see Justification). Augustine's De fide et operibus established in the Church Paul's doctrine of " faith which worketh by love " (Gal. v. 6). The specific Roman Catholic combination of a religion of salvation and a religion of justice began after the time of Tertullian to be formed by means of an elastic and complicated conception of Merit (q.v.). The thesis of Augustine that God crowns as human desert his own gifts of grace made the combination possible. The scholastics treat many problems relative to this subject not under the title of bona opera, " good works," but under actus humani, " human activities," as belonging to ethics. As they recognized seven principal virtues, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and as especially good acts, eight evangelical beatitudes, so also they counted seven corporal and seven spiritual works of charity. The corporal were the Jewish " deeds of kindness " (Lactantius, Epitome, lx.; Augustine, De moribus ecclesice catholicce, xxvii.). These works of pity especially, but also the other categories mentioned, are still important in the Roman Church. The prevailing,