Ellis on Article XII: Of Good Works

John Ellis, 1700

Commentaries on Article XII: Rogers (1607)Ellis (1660)Burnet (1699)Beveridge (d. 1708)Welchman (1713)Practical Exposition (1716)Veneer (1725)Madan (1772)Hey (1796)Tomline (1799)Wilson (1821)Jones (1849)Trollope (1850)Browne (1850)Forbes (1867)Boultbee (1871)Maclear & Williams (1895)Green (1896)Gibson (1896)Jackson (1900)Bicknell (1919) · Article 12: text, context and Study

Article XII. Of Good Works
Albeit that Good Works, which are the fruits of Faith, and follow after Justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's Judgement; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith; insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit.
Text: Book of Common Prayer (1662)

Cleaned OCR; [...] marks passages cut for illegibility. See the scan. Text: A Defense of the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England, written in Latin by J. Ellis, S.T.D. (Articulorum XXXIX Ecclesiae Anglicanae Defensio, first published 1660), now done into English (London, 1700). Cleaned OCR from the Internet Archive scan of the Early English Books copy; passages too garbled to recover are marked [...]. Public domain.

Obj. 2. The Integrity of Tob # described, Chap. 1.2. David’asks to be judged according | to his Righteousness, niy, and boasts of it too, Plal. 97. 8B. And then we read of Zachariah and Elizaberh, that they were both Righteous before God,-Luke 1. 6. It seems then, thai their Hoks

would bear the Fudament of God.

Answ. A partial Perfection, which is Sincerity, is attribured to the Godly, bur nor an absolure one, such as is called a gradual Perfection; as if they could be able to stand rhe severe Trial of Divine Judgment. Fob

| lays he could. not do fo, Chap. 9.2, 3. Ir is * one thing to speak of the Righteousness of a * Caule, and another of a Personal Righreoul(-

ness ; in respect of which latter, David him- self confesses, that he could nor bear the Judg- ment of God, P/al. 130. 3. 143. 2.

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Obj. g. S:. James cencindes, Chap. 2. 24: Thar a Man is justified by Works, and nor by Faith only. |

Answ. St. Fames speaks of Justification, or the proof of Justification before Men, as is plain from Verse 18. Shew me thy Faith by thy Yorks, and Ver. 21. Abram was justified by the Work of Offering up his Son, 1. e. he was declared Righteous, whereas before, by the rightcoulne!s of Faith he had been pronounced Just before God, Gen. 15.6. Rom. 4.

Obj. 4. Evil Forks condemn, therefore Good Ones just ifie ; for the same reason holds in things that are opposite, ‘E

Answ. These Opposites here are not equal, which that Axiom supposes; for Evil Works are perfectly Evil, but Good Ones are im- perfectly Good.

Obj. 5. Fe are justified by Faith, as appears by the foregring Article ; but Faith is a Good Work; for he that believes does well, therefore we are justified by Faith, which is a Good Work.

Answ. The major of that Argument is in one sense true, and inanother falle; for Faith, properly speaking, is not our Righreousness, nar is it so imputed to us: bur ir-is the object of our Faith that is so; ro wir, the Merit of Christ.

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ART. XIII. Of Works before Fustification.

Read at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_a-defense-of-the-thirty-_ellis-john_1700