and disturb the order of its station. Therefore, let the praiseworthy merits of the greatest virtues have their own honour and dignity, which no man withholds from them. Nevertheless, by their dignity they will never be so available in the presence of the heavenly Judge, as to redeem us from our sins, to satisfy justice, to deliver us from the wrath of God, and everlasting destruction, to restore us that are so many ways ruined, unto grace and life, to unite us as sons and heirs to God, and to overcome death, and the world. These things cost a far dearer price, than that we should ever be able to pay so many and so great debts by any works or merits, or means of our own. For so great is the severity of justice, that there can be no reconciliation, unless justice be satisfied by suffering the whole punishment that was due. The wrath is so very great, that there is no hope of appeasing the Father but by the price and death of the Son. And again, so great is the mercy, that the Father grudged not to send his own Son, and bestow him on the world, and so to bestow him, that he gives life eternal to them that believe in him. Moreover, so great is the loving kindness of the Son towards us, that he grudged not for our sakes to bring upon himself this infinite load of wrath, which otherways our frailty, however assisted with all the help of moral virtues, had never been able to sustain.

10. Whence faith hath received its efficacy.

Because faith alone with fixed eyes looks upon this Son and Mediator, and cleaves unto him, who only could bring about this achievement of our redemption with the Father; therefore it is, that it alone hath this virtue and power of justifying-not with works, nor for works, but only for the sake of the Mediator, on whom it relies. Therefore, that is false and worthy to be rejected with disdain, which some unhappy and wicked school divines affirm in discoursing of charity, that it is the form of faith, and that it cannot, by any means, be separated from faith, any more than the vital soul can be separated from the body, or the essential form from matter, which otherwise is a rude and unwieldy mass. In answering of whom, I think there is no need of many words, seeing that the whole meaning and drift of scripture, if rightly understood-the very end of the law-also Christ, and the instruction of the apostles, and the whole nature of the gospel seem to be

manifestly against them, and wholly to overturn that most absurd opinion, by so many oracles, so many signs, examples, and arguments to the contrary. Now if that be

form which gives subsistence to a thing, how much more truly must it be said, that faith is the form of charity, without which all the works of charity are base and contemptible; as again, the form of faith is not charity, but Christ only, and the promise of the word.

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"But what," say they, are not the pious works of charity acceptable to God, being so many ways prescribed unto us, and commanded by him? Are not these also remunerated with plentiful fruits of righteousness, and heaped up with manifold rewards in the gospel? I was hungry,' says Christ, and ye fed me; I thirsted, and ye refreshed me with drink, so that not so much as a cup of cold water shall want a reward, when it is given in the name of Christ, besides an infinite number of other things of that kind, which being taken out of the scriptures are enlarged upon to the praise of charity."

Indeed, no man denies that pious and holy works of charity are greatly approved of God, and it is an undoubted truth, that the love of God and of our neighbour, as it comprehends the summary of both tables, and is the greatest fulfilment of the whole law, so it hath excellent promises annexed unto it. Neither is there any controversy between us about that. But when we affirm that charity pleases God, we ask this, How it pleases? whether simply of itself in respect of the very work, or upon the account of faith, and the Mediator? And then, Whether the same charity so pleases, that it justifies us before God, and obtains the pardon of sins, and overcomes the terrors of death and sin, that it may be opposed to the judgment and anger of God? Moreover, whether it hath the promises of eternal life annexed unto it? If without a Mediator and the faith of him, there is nothing which can please God, and it is impossible that works should please him before the person of him that works is reconciled, it follows that charity depends on faith, and not faith on charity. But faith rather goes before love, and is so far from being joined with it for justification, that it also justifies charity, and makes all the works of charity acceptable to God. The matters appear more evident by example. Suppose a Jew or Turk daily bestows great gifts upon the poor with very great cost and damage to his estate; and again, that a christian gives

only a cup of cold water to a thirsty man in the name of Christ; in the things themselves, if merits only be valued, there seems a very great disproportion. But there is much greater inequality in the distributing the reward. Though a Turk bestows many thousands of talents upon the poor, he gains not any thing at all thereby with God. A christian, by one cup, not of wine, but of cold water, loses not his reward; yea, he finds life. What is the cause, but because those things are not valued by MERITS, but by FAITH; not by the condition of the work, but of the worker; not by the price of the thing, but by the dignity of the person. 11. In justification, not so much the condition of the deeds as of the persons, is regarded.

See of how great concern it is, that a person should first be reconciled to God. For, unless he be received into God's favour, it is not possible that his works should please him at any time. As in civil and political affairs, it is of no small import whether a son or a servant acts upon the account of reward; in like manner in the heavenly generation there is a great difference between sons and servants, the heirs of God and mercenaries. For one thing is regarded in servants, and another in sons, and their condition appears to be far different. It belongs to servants to be compelled by fear, but they that are sons are drawn by love, and they do so much the more in the performance of their duties, how much the more gladly they endeavour to please their Father. They that serve, go about their business only for reward, and it is given unto them no other ways than according to their merits. Who, when they have done all, remain nothing but servants and unprofitable, they never do any thing worthy of an inheritance. On the contrary, they who are heirs and sons, though they show themselves no less obedient, and observe the will of their Father, yet they do not obey that they may be made heirs by works, but because they are heirs. Therefore they work.

Again, they that are in a servile condition, do not come, but when called by their master, and perform his commands by the impulse of the law. But the case is contrariwise in sons, who have always access with boldness into the presence of their Father, and cry, "Abba, father," performing much more of their own accord than by the incitement of another's prescription. Servants, after they

have done their task, have wages paid them according to their merits, but they receive no reward of inheritance But they that are sons and heirs, have an inheritance mad sure to them. Not according to their obedience, nor by their deeds, nor after their deeds, but by the faith of the promise, and a free donation before all obedience. Concerning which faith, Paul said, It is therefore of faith, that according to grace the promise should be firm to all the seed. Moreover, in those that are sons, it is only the dignity of the person, and not the merits of good life; it is the birth, and not the works, that are regarded. case is contrariwise in servants; for it is not regarded what the person is, but what the manner of life. In short, the servant, as Christ witnesseth, abides not in the house for ever. But the son, to whom the house is delivered, wholly and for ever, is never driven out of the house.

But the

And here Christ alone is a Son by nature, we only by the grace of adoption. He by birth, we by deliverance; of which he himself testifies, If the Son, saith he, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed, he, being partaker of his Father's nature, is not made a Son by his life, but is born a Son; we being servants by nature, are not born sons, but are born again, not by works, but by faith.

But by Christ our Deliverer we are changed from servants into sons. Not that we cease now to be the same that we were in this life, sinners, miserable, weak, and mortal, for this transformation from servants into sons, is not so much performed in us, or in the change of our qualities, but chiefly in the love of God to us. For he hath so high an esteem, and puts so great a value on Christ, his only begotten, that with a fatherly love and affection, he embraces all those of mankind throughout the world, that believe in this Son of his; and looking upon them now as sons, adopts them for his sons, out of their servile estate; yea, and makes them coheirs together with his Son. Whence St. Paul said; Ye are not now servants, but sons and if sons, then also heirs of God through Christ; for ye are all the sons of God by faith, which is in Christ Jesus, Gal. iv.

Ye

Whosoever of you are baptized, ye have put on Christ. We are all one in Christ Jesus. But, if ye are Christ's, then are ye the seed of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise, Gal. iii. Concerning which also John speaks to this purpose; See what love the Father hath given us,

that we should be called the children of God. And again, presently repeating the same, Dearly beloved, saith he, now we are the sons of God, and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be, &c. 1 John iii.

12. The absurdities that arise from the Osorian (Romish) righteousness.

Which things, seeing they are guarded with most sure confirmations of evangelical scripture, hence it necessarily follows, that all this discourse of yours about righteousness falls down from the foundation. For if, as you say, there is no union with God the eternal Father, "but to those who by an exact observation of the law conform and direct all their actions to the will of God, which is the law of equity and rule of justice:" you make us not now to be sons, nor heirs according to the promise, but mercenaries according to the condition of the law. Moreover, by this means also it will come to pass that the promise is sure to no man, in his life-time; which is directly opposite, not only to the mind of Paul, but also to the genuine condition of sons. For who in the time of this life lives so exactly according to the commands of God, that hitherto he has never passed the limits thereof, or knows that he shall not do so in the remainder of his life? Whereby it will come to pass that the mind must needs waver hither and thither, with perpetual uncertainty. Moreover, if it be accounted sure by the word and promise of the gospel, that as many as are ingrafted into Christ are heirs, then the kingdom of God must of necessity be an inheritance. If an inheritance, then it is not a recompense nor a reward, but a patrimony, which is not due to deeds, but to the spiritual birthright. If to the birthright, then the bestowing of the inheritance goes before all deeds. Afterwards pious deeds follow, according to the saying of Augustine, which is no less true than firm; "Good works follow him that is justified, but go not before him that is to be justified." Wherefore, if that most pure and eternal nature account us for sons, as it was proved above, in whom there is not any stain of unrighteousness, upon the like account it follows that the cause which joins us to God, as sons, the same also makes us just in the sight of God.

But that we may rightly examine what that cause is, first the degrees of causes must be distinguished, of which some are related unto God, and others to men. On God's