Brief Exposition (Stanley) n. 23

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23. Concerning Justification by Faith, the Council of Trent declares as follows "It has always been the agreed opinion of the Catholic Church that faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God and to come into the fellowship of His children" see above, n. 5 (a). Also it is said that "faith comes by hearing the Word of God," n. 4(d). Moreover, the aforesaid Roman Catholic Council conjoined faith and charity, or faith and good works, as may be clearly seen from the above quotations, nos. 4, 5, 7, 8. But the Reformed Churches, following their own leaders, have separated them, making salvation to consist in faith, and not at the same time in charity or good works, to the end that they might be totally severed from the Roman Catholics as to the very essentials of the Church, which are faith and charity; this I have frequently heard from the aforesaid leaders themselves. I have also heard that they established this separation by the following considerations: that no one can do any good which avails for salvation of himself, nor can anyone fulfil the law; nor, again, can any merit of man's enter into faith. From these principles, and in view of the end stated above, they excluded the goods of charity from faith, and thereby from salvation. This is evident from the quotations given above from the Formula Concordiae, n. 12, among which are these: "Faith, to the extent that it is formed by charity, does not justify as the Papists allege, 12 (b). The position that good works are necessary for salvation is to be rejected on many accounts and also because they are accepted by the Papists in support of a bad cause, 12 (h). The decree of the Council of Trent that good works preserve and retain salvation must rightly be rejected," 12 (n); besides many other points there stated. However, the Reformed still conjoin faith and charity into one for salvation, with the sole difference as to the quality of the works, as will be shown in the following article.


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