Some correspondence followed the passing of this article, which strikingly shews the jealous A. D. 1541. care with which the true doctrine on this fun- Correspondamental point was then guarded, and which dence may furnish suggestions by no means superfluous in our own times. The elector sharply censured the conduct of of the Melancthon in deviating from the language of Elector Du Pin, submitted to him, for a specimen, the most favour- CHAP. V. and Luther. the confession, and admitting "obscure and scholastic terms." The doctrine of justification by faith alone, he says, was (in this article) well nigh buried beneath appendages and explanations; and a handle given to their adversaries to represent them as having departed from their original tenets. He would have recourse to Luther, from whose doctrine, as that reformer had ever hitherto proposed it, he would not deviate in this or in any other particular. He insisted that the article, though passed, should not have any validity unless the parties came to agreement on all the other points in debate. Luther, on being consulted, in some degree apologized for Melancthon; though he allowed that the article was "botched and unsatisfactory." It seemed to him, he said, that his friend had proposed an orthodox formulary, asserting justification by faith alone, without works, according to Romans iii.; but that the collocutors on the contrary part had substituted another, taken from Galatians v., concerning "faith working by love;" and that, this having been rejected by Melancthon, one had been formed out of the two, which seemed to sanction the opinions of both partics. On the clause, " that the repenting sinner is justified by a living and efficacious faith," he says, Either Eccius must acknowledge (which he will never do,) that he and his friends have not before taught this doctrine, and then the article may stand for a time; or he will boast (and this is what he certainly will do,) that they have always taught, from Galatians v., the doctrine of an efficacious or operative faith;-and then the article will become a new patch upon the old garment, by which the rent will be made worse: they will glory in their victory, and in the able manner in which our party have supported their cause, especially when they maintain that there has been no departure from the confession-that this is all which it taught!' There can be no doubt of the truth and correctness of the position here animadverted upon, "that the repenting sinner is justified by a living and efficacious faith," provided only that it be rightly interpreted: but Luther foresaw that it would be misinterpreted. Having got the mention of repentance and of operative efficacy introduced along with that of faith, in the matter of justification, the adversaries of the protestants would immediately proceed to ascribe to these virtues the office of justifying us, as much and in the same way as to faith itself. Of such a procedure we have a notable instance in the bishop of Meaux, who has pursued the same method of softening down the objectionable doctrines of his own church, and representing those of the reformed body, where they are undeniably good, as borrowed from them, or virtually implied in them. Finding it declared in the Saxon confession, (as he might find it in all the confessions,) "that sin reigns not in him that is justified, but rather charity, or love, and therefore righteousness," he immediately concludes, that it would be 1 This is expressly the doctrine of that "storehouse" from which too much modern divinity is drawn, Bishop Bull's Harmonia Apostolica. "Nothing more," he says, "is to be attributed to faith in this business than to other virtues." I. vi. Nay, in his Examen Censuræ, or Defence of his work, he affirms, that "in scripture our justification is more frequently ascribed to other virtues than to faith." Animad. ix. The reader will find many of Luther's remarks on this occasion directly meet the errors of the work referred to. A. D. 1541. CHAP. V. 99 better then at once to acknowledge," that we are justified by the righteousness which is inherent in us; and such justification, he contends, would still be " gratuitous," since this righteousness "proceeds from the gift of God!" 1 The reader who recals to mind Hooker's sentence concerning "hope and charity being joined as inseparable mates with faith in the man that is justified," but "faith the only hand which putteth on Christ to justification," or any of the corresponding passages in our Homilies, will need no further detection of all such sophistry. On the expression, Galatians v. 6., "faith that worketh by love," (which the papists rendered" faith formed by love," 2 meaning in effect that it owed its very character, and its power to justify, to the love by which it was accompanied,) Luther remarks, "It does not treat of justification, but of the life of the justified. It is one thing to be made righteous, and another to act as righteous; one thing to be, and another to do. Even schoolboys distinguish between active and passive. It is one question, How a man is justified before God, another, How a justified man acts. It is one thing for a tree to be produced, another for it to bring forth fruit." 1 Bossuet, Hist. of Variat. 393 and 112. In this Bishop Bull thinks there is little or nothing objectionable. He evidently attributes all the efficacy of faith, and even its very "life," to the love and good fruits which are associated with it: and, remarking that the apostle, in his illustration, does not say, "As a man without a spirit is dead," but, " As a body without," &c. he affirms, "As a dead body is truly and properly a body, so a dead faith is truly and properly faith." II. ii. With this compare our Homily: "It is not now faith, as a dead man is not a man." Luther further pointed out, that, though it was conceded, that "our salvation is to be ascribed to the righteousness of Christ conferred upon us," yet this "availed little, unless it were also established, that the application of grace and the merits of Christ to us is only by faith without this the opinion of the merit of works to procure it, and the other errors which the schoolmen had deduced from that, would never be excluded." In the conclusion of his letter, he entreats the elector not to be severe upon Melancthon, for it would break his heart. The confession, he thought, might yet be regarded as secure, since the agreement on this article was not to take effect, unless it were extended to all the other points also-which would never be the case. In the mean time the effect of the conference would be good: it would weaken the papacy: the strength of Christ would be made perfect in the weakness of his servants. tainly," he says, "in us Christ has ever hitherto been weak; and yet by us he has humbled the mighty. He acts thus that we may not be proud, or boast, as if in things of so great and divine a nature we could accomplish any thing of ourselves." 1 "Cer A. D. 1541. testants. Before we take leave of the subjects dis- Discipline cussed in this conference, we may observe, of the Prothat a stricter discipline appears to have prevailed among the protestants, than either from their own complaints, or from the representations of their enemies, we should perhaps have expected. On the article of confession they urge, that, where sins were not open and notorious, confession was rather to be recommended 1 Seck. iii. 356, 357. |