Maclear and Williams on Article XIII: Of Works before Justification

i. Connection. The Thirteenth Article is another of the series respecting the precise value of good works, which it was deemed necessary to insert in consequence of the hot debates on the subject at the period of the Reformation.

ii. The Title has always remained the same since the first draft in 1553. But there is an apparent discrepancy between it and the first clause. While the Title speaks of ” Works before Justification,” the body of the Article speaks of ” Works done before the grace of Christ and the Inspiration of His Spirit.” In an early draft of the Articles of 1553 both the Title and first clause agree1.

qux fiunt ante justificationem, cum ex Twelfth of the Forty-five Articles of

fide Jesu Christi non prodeant, minime 1552. See Hardwick Hist. Art. p.

Deo grata sunt, neque gratiam, ut multi 281. vocant, de congruo merentur.” This

iii. Object. The design of the Article is to re- pudiate a theory of some of the Schoolmen1, who affirmed that men may be entitled to receive Initial Grace, as the reward of actions which had been done by them in their own strength, and apart from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In other words the Article repudiates the doctrine of ” congruous merit.”

iv. Congruous Merit was an expression much used by the School Authors. Reviving the teaching of the Semi-Pelagians, some of them taught that it was possible for men before the Grace of Christ and the inspiration of His Spirit, to do works, which, though not actually good in themselves2, yet had such a measure of goodness in them, that being in harmony3 with the Divine Will, they at- tracted and merited Initial Grace.

v. Analysis. It is with this theory that the Article is concerned and it lays down two points : —

(a) That apart from the Grace of God there cannot be such a thing as good works ;

(b) That if works are done apart from His Grace, they will be so tainted with human infirmity, that instead of meriting Initial Grace4, they will

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the Latin version of 1552 is rendered mulieri magis congruit”; Cic. Leg. i.

in English “as the schole aucthours 20. 53, “de re una solum dissident,

saye.” de caeteris mirifice congruunt” ; for

• The Dominicans differed on this the adjective compare Plaut. Mil. iv.

point from the Franciscans, and the 3. 23, “sermo cum ilia congruus.”

Council of Trent strongly affirmed, in Hence Grace de congruo denoted

opposition to a party of Pelagian Grace merited and conferred because

Schoolmen, the inability of man to do of the congruity or harmony of the

good works without the Preventing good work done with the revealed

Grace of God, “sine proeveniente will of God.

Spiritus Sancti inspiratione atque ejus 4 S. Thomas Aquinas in the course

adjutorio.” of his reply to the question, ” Utrum

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notes (i) running or meeting together; tiam,” says: —

(ii) agreeing with, or suitable to; (iii) (1) “lam etiam ipse actus fidei

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i So

have the nature of sin, that blended with them there will ever be the taint of inherent im- perfection.

vi. Scripture teaching. And this is in accordance with the teaching of Scripture. For we learn from it that ” the Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father,” was the Light of men (John i. 4), not only during the brief period that He lived incarnate here on earth, but from the beginning, long before men knew Him in the flesh (John i. 9). Whatever virtue, there- fore, there was in ancient times, or is amongst men, flowed not from any natural power of their own, but from Him, Who before He ever took upon Him our nature, was and is the One Source of Light and Life. He it is Who hath said and alone can say, / am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life (John xiv. 6). Whatsoever good there was in a Job, a Ruth, a Naaman, in the repenting Ninevites1, Nebuchadnezzar, the good centurion of the Gospels, or Cornelius, was not due to anything in themselves, or to any inherent goodness of their own, which could attract or merit Initial Grace2. The Grace was there already, and it prompted their several actions3. As the good fruit is not the cause that the tree is good, but the tree must first be good before it can bring forth good fruit, so a man cannot without help from God so do good works as to be pleasing

et ita non potest esse meri- 1 It is noteworthy that it is the

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(2) ” Deus non dat gratiam nisi our Lord so forcibly alludes, when He dignis, non tamen ita quod would teach the duty of repentance prius digni fuerint, sed quia (Matt. xii. 41; Luke xi. 30).

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dignos ” ; conatus ad bonum, et cassi sunt, si a

(3) “Omne bonum opus hominis gratia non adjuvantur; et nulli, si non procedit a prima gratia sicut excitantur.” S. Bernard, De Gratia a principio: non autem pro- et Lib. Arb. xiii. 42.

cedit a quocunque humano 3 See C. Kingsley’s Sermon on the dono.” Summa, II. Qu. cxiv. Education of a Heathen. Art. 5.

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to Him. If he has done anything that is good, it has been because the Light that lighteth every man (John i. 9), even the Sun of righteousness, has already shone into his soul1.

vii. With whom does the Article not deal? The

Article, it is to be carefully observed, does not deal with the final state of the heathen world, or with those who have never heard the Name of Christ. As Revelation is ad- dressed to those whom it concerns, and tells us very little of the state of those to whom it is not addressed, so on these subjects the Article preserves a complete silence2. We know that God willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. ii. 4). This is His revealed will. Our business is to follow in the path marked out for us, and not to ask Lord, and what shall this man do? (John xxi. 21), for in respect to the heathen world we may be sure that the Judge of all the earth shall do right (Gen. xviii. 25), and He, Who received the heathen Syro-phcenician woman and the Roman centurion3, has Himself declared that many shall come from the East and the West, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac,

their essence His.” Dr Liddon, Ser- 3 “Albeit the works of heathen mon reported in Church of England men are not to be compared with the Pulpit, \. p. 219. “0<ra oiv irapa ira<n good works of faithful men engraffed KaXwi eiprjTai, -q/jiuv twv Xpianavwi’ in the Church of Christ; yet for many tart. Just. Mart. Apol. ii. § 13. causes, and principally for that without 3 “How God will deal with the all controversy all good gifts and en- heathen who have never heard His dowments, even in the paynims, are Name, is not for us to say. It opens God’s good gifts, they have the title up an immense question, on which and name of good works in some there has been no decision by the respects given unto them.” Bp Wool- Church. While charity hopeth all ton’s Christian Manual, p. 43. Ed. things, no lax view should affect our Parker Soc.

and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven : but ike sons of tlie kingdom skall be cast forth into the outer darkness (Matt, viii. II, 12).

viii. With whom does the Article deal? What

the Article really denies is that form of semi-Pelagian teaching, revived by some of the Scholastic divines, which, refusing to accept the doctrine of the innate corruption of man’s nature1, asserted that he could of himself, apart from the Grace of God, do works entitling him to Initial Grace. What it asserts is that the spirit which would lead man to rely on his unassisted efforts, is not the spirit which is acceptable to God2. It is not the spirit of faith, nor that of grateful love in return for infinite benefits conferred3. It is a virtual denial of that human infirmity which clings to the best human actions, and makes them, in consequence of the inherent stain of sin, necessarily defective, and imparts to them ” the nature of sin.”

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2 Ultimately such a spirit is the spirit of unbelief; ‘il faut encore dire que l’orgueil est le pere de l’incredu- lite… Quomodo poteslis credere, dit

Votre Seigneur, Vos, qui gloriam ab invicem accipitis ?” Dupanloup, L En- fant, pp. 241, 242.

3 “Sed suspicentur homines quae- libet merita bona, quae putant prae- cedere, ut justificentur per Dei gratiam: non intelligentes, cum hoc dicunt, nihil aliud quam se negare gratiam.” S. Prosper. Aquit. 333 e.

Notes

• See Hardwick, p. 401. “Opera was how the first clause ran in the
• ” In all the higher and purer sense of the duty of missionary exer- regions of thought you are nearer tion, or diminish our value for those Christ, even though His Name be not assertions, which attach the attain- uttered…’Whatsoeverthingsaretrue, ment of everlasting life to such con- whatsoever things are honest. ..think ditions as faith, baptism, and holi- on these things,’ for even if they do not ness.” Bp Forbes, On the Articles, bear His Name, they are assuredly in p. 206.