Ellis on Article XIII: Of Works before Justification

Answ. The Gentiles do indeed by Nature the things of the Law, in some external Du= - ties: Bur notas to alFother requisite Circum= stances, because they do them nor in Faith, nor to the Glory of the true God.

Obj. 3. Cornelius was a Gentile : But be- fore his Conversion to Christ, his Alms=deeds were praised, as good and acceptable, Acts 10.1. So that his Good Works seem to have disposed him to Grace, or to have deserved (as the School Men say) the Grace of Congruity.

Answ. Cornelius was endued with rhe ex- traordinary Grace of God, and God rewarded fo him accordingly : And he seems ro have had

• a knowledge of Christ ro cone ; tor his Pray-

Q. ”

«WV; a nf TIRE Pg 8; ORD Tv xs

6 ad nd G

bf ers had not been heard, bur by Christ gur © Mediator, and upon that account he is thought 5 to have been Regenerare. […] 1 Obj. 4. If the Works of the Unregenerate 1 5 have the nature of Sin (as the Article expresses

C4 7t}

Ws 34 A Defence of the G) it were better not to do, than to do them, be- *ause by doing them they sin, and by not doing “hem, the Sin would not possibly be so great : And therefore it were better, if such Men neither re- lieved the Poor, nor taught the Ignorant.

Answ. Unbelievers would fin in omitting _ whart they ought to do, and the Sin of Omit- fion is sometimes greater than the Sin of Com- mission. However, Works are not to be for- bid for any accidental Faulr of rhe Man ; bur the Gentiles and the Unconverred are to be per{waded to do all Good Things, which they are even obliged ro by Precepr. The Works of an unregenerate Man have the Nature of Sin only accidentally as to rhe Manner and the End of Acting, and not as to the Substance of the

Works.

ART. XIV. Of Works of Supererogation,