Gibson on Article XII: Of Good Works

There is nothing corresponding to this Article in the series of 1553. It is one of the four new Articles added by Parker at the revision in the early years of Elizabeth, a portion of the first clause being taken by him (like others of his addition) from the Confession of Wiirtemberg,^

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catos sequuntur) is due to S. Augustine, who uses it in his treatise, De fde et operibusy c. xiv.

The object of the Article is obviously to state the mind of the Church of England on the position of “good works,” with reference, perhaps, to the Roman teaching on the one hand, and the exaggerations of Luther and of some who professed to be his followers on the other.

(a) The Tridentine statements occur in the decrees and canons of the sixth session (held in January 1647). They follow naturally from the view of justification held by the Roman Church, and are very emphatic in their assertion of the ” merit ” of good works ; e.g, ” We must needs believe that to the justified nothing further is wanting, but that they may be accounted to have, by those very works which have been done in God, fully satisfied the Divine law according to the state of this life, and truly to have merited eternal life, to be obtained also in its due time if they shall have departed in grace.” ^ Again : ** If anyone shall say that the good works of a man that is justified are in such wise the gift of God, as that they are not also the good merits of him that is justified, or that the said justified, by the good works which are performed by him through the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that eternal life, if so be, however, that he depart in grace, and, moreover, an increase of glory : let him be anathema.”*

(6) On the other hand, Luther used strong expressions on the sinful character of all man’s efforts. ” Even the best work is a venial sin ” ; and yet more strongly, ** Omne opus justi damnabile est et peccatum mortale, si judicio

• •* Si quis dixerit hominis justificati bona opera ita esse dona Deo ut non sint etiam bona ipsius justificati merita; aut ipsum justificatum bonis operibus quae ab eo per Dei gratiam et Jesu Christi meritum, cujus vivum membrum est, fiunt, non vere mereri augmentum gratia, vitam setemam, et ipsius vitse eetemse, si tamen in gratia decesserit, consecutionem, atque etiam gloriae augmentum : anathema sit.” — lb. canon xxxii.

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Dei judicetur.”^ No wonder, then, that among his followers a depreciation of the need of good works of any kind was prevalent, and that Antinomianism and Solifidianism were widely spread. It is probable that it was even more in order to protect the Church against these errors than to protest against the Koman teaching that the Article was inserted,^ though it is so worded as to guard against false views on either side.

The main statements of the Article may be summed up as follows : —

1. Good works are the fruits and result of faith, and the evidence of it.

2. They ” follow after justification.”

3. They have no merit in themselves, and cannot endure the severity of God’s judgment.

4. Yet they are acceptable to God in Christ.

The Koman and Lutheran divines looked at good works from opposite sides, and were consequently led into exaggerated statements in different directions. The Anglican Article by its balanced statements endeavours to do justice to both sides of the whole truth on the subject of which it treats, and seems to recognise that in every ” good work ” there are two factors, a human and a Divine. In so far as the doer of the work is following the leadings of grace, it is good ; in so far as he is not, there is an element of sinfulness in the work. The main points laid down in the Article seem to follow so natur-

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ally from the teaching of Article XI. on justification by faith, that they require but little explanation and no formal Scriptural proof. It may, however, be well to point out that in the statement that gOOd WOrks […] foUow after jastiflcation, the ” good works ” of which this Article is speaking are clearly external works, or that actual obedience which produces a course of actions. Repentance, which from one point of view might certainly be termed a ” good work,” cannot possibly be referred to, because it precedes and does not ” follow after justification.”^ The phrase, as we have seen, is due to S. Augustine, and, as Waterland says, by it Augustine ” meant no more than that men must be incorporated in Christ, must be Christians, and good Christians (for such only are justified), before they could practise Christian works or righteousness, strictly so called : for such works only have an eminent right and title to the name of good works, as they only are salutary within the covenant, and have a claim upon the promise. Works before justification, i.e. before salutary baptism, are not, in his account, within the promise.” ^ The expression in the Article must be understood in the same way, and not pressed so as to make it imply that nothing good can

’ Summary View of tJu Doclri’iu of Justification, Works, vol. vi. p. 21 ; cf. Bp. Bull, Harmony of Justification, p. 55. ” Augustine is certainly not to be understood of every work, but of a long continuance of works, so that his meaning may be this : the works which precede justification are less and fewer than those which follow it. Without some explanation of this kind, that maxim, so often used, will with difficulty be freed from an evident falsehood.”

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possibly precede justification, — a position which, as will be shown under the following article, could not be established from Scripture, and one to which the Church of England is certainly not committed. That, then, to which this Article is intended to bind us is this, namely, that, as justification comes at the beginning of the Christian life, ” good works ” properly so called must be subsequent to it, and that they are the natural and necessary outcome of that faith by which a man is justified.

Waterland’s conclusion on the whole subject which has been considered in these two Articles (XI. and XII.) is worth quoting : ” Take we due care so to maintain the doctrine of faith as not to exclude the necessity of good works, and so to maintain good works as not to exclude the necessity of Christ’s atonement, or the free grace of God. Take we care to perform all evangelical duties to the utmost of our power, aided by God’s Spirit ; and when we have so done, say that we are unprofitable servants, having no strict claim to a reward, but yet looking for one and accepting it as a favour, not challenging it as due in any right of our own: due only upon free promise, and that promise made, not in consideration of any deserts of ours, but in and through the alone merits, active and passive, of Jesus Christ our Lord.”^

Notes

• “Non est autem sentiendum quod iis bonis operibus, qua per nos facimus, in judicio Dei ubi agitur de expiatione peccatorum et placationc divinse irae ac merito Aternse salutis confitendum est. Omnia enim bona opera quae nos facimus sunt imperfecta, 7\ec possunt aevtritcUem divini judici%ferre”—D€. bonis operibus. See Hardwick, p. 126.
• ” Nihil ipsis justificatis amplius deesse credendum est, quo minus plene illis quidem operibus qu« in Deo sunt facta, divin» legi pro hujus vitce statu satisfecisse, et vitam setemam suo etiam tempore, si tamen in gratia decesserint, consequendam, vere promeruissecenseantur.” — Cone. Trident, Sessio Sexta, c. xvi.
• Parker \vrites in 1559, “They say that the realm is full of Anabaptists, Arians, Libertines, Freewill men,” etc. Parker’s Correspondence (Parker Society), p. 61.
• ” Bona opera ” had apparently come to have almost a technical sense for definite Christian works. Gardiner in his Declaration (fol. xxxviii.) distinguishes carefully between ” bona opera ” which follow after justification, and ” opera poenitentise ” which precede it. See Hardwick, p. 401 ; and the Tridentine decrees seem carefully to avoid speaking of “good works ” as done before justification, while anathematising the view that “a// works which are done before justification are tnily sins.” — Sess. VI. canon vii.
• Summary VieWs etc., p. 38.