Boultbee on Article XII: Of Good Works

The following phrases may be noticed on comparing the Latin with the English: ^justificatos sequuntur^ stands for * follow after justification.’ * Expiare peccata ’ presents a more definite idea than the English * put away sins.’ * Viva ’ is rendered ’ lively,* as in 1 Pet. i. 3. It will be observed that in the Eleventh Article Faith is used without any qualifying epithet, but there can be no reasonable doubt of the identity of the Faith spoken of in both these Articles, and, therefore, this epithet lively must be understood as equally qualifying the word Faith in both.

This Article was added in 1562, not having been one of the Forty-two Articles of 1552. It is said by Archdeacon Hard- wick ^ to have been adapted from the Wurtemberg Con-

” * History of the Articles,* p. 379.

118 ARTICIiEJ XIL

session, but lihe resemblance is rather slight, and the Ian* guage of Augustine has been probably the common basis. The Elizabethan divines no doubt had in view the Anti- nomian Anabaptists as well as the Eomanists in the statements of this Article.

[…]

1. The imperfection before God of the good works of men faithful and justified. - ’

2. The nature and ground of the r^ard Grod has to such works.

3. The relation of good works to &ith.

The Scripture proof may conveniently and clearly be grouped round these principal divisions.

Observations on Article XII.

The Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian controversies of necessity involved the question of the value of the good works of the Christian. We do not recur to the history of those contro- versies. The teaching of the scholastic divines on the merit of good works is deferred until we come to the Thirteenth Article. We pass on to the Council of Trent (Session VI. canon 32), * Whosoever shall say that the good works of a justified man are in such a sense the gifls of God that they are not good merits of the justified man himself, or that a justified man by good works which are done by him through the grace of God, and the merits of Jesus Christ, of whom he is a living member, does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the actual attainment of eternal life if he die in grace, together with increase of glory, let him be anathema.’

It will scarcely be necessary to produce authorities in ad- dition to those already brought forward under the Eleventh Article. The passages from the Homily, from Hooker, and from Bull suflSiciently cover the ground of this Article also. The student who desires to read more on the Eoman opinions of merit in the good works of the justified will find ample

information in that treasure-house of learning, * Field Of the Church; 1

This Article sets the seal on the preceding, inasmuch aa good works are said to follow justification, and cannot there- fore concur to • obtaining it. Bishop Bull, and others of his school, evade this difficulty by their doctrine of the first and second justification. He says that eleven works of repentance are necessary with faith to the first justification, and that to the second justification, many more works are necessary and that of these this Article speaks.

Bishop O’Brien weU observes : ^ * What foundation does this Article or any other Article supply for this distinction of a first and second justification ? … If there be another justifi- cation the Articles do not speak of it, or even glance at it. They tell us, indeed, of a justification before which no good works are done (Art. XIII.), and after which all good works are done (XII.). But they do not intimate to us, in any way, that this is but inchoate, and that there is another justification to the obtaining of which all these good works are necessary.’

It may be further noted that as good works are said in this