BEFORE, it was declared at large that no man can be justified by his own good works, because that no man fulfilleth the law according to the full request of the

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law. And St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Galatians, proveth the same, saying thus: "If there had been any law given which could have justified, verily righteousness should have been by the law." And again he saith, "If righteousness be by the law, then Christ died in vain." And again he saith, "You that are justified by the law, are fallen from grace." And furthermore he writeth to the Ephesians on this wise, "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God, and not of works, lest any man should glory." And, to be short, the sum of all Paul's disputation is this, That if justice come of works, then it cometh not of grace; and if it come of grace, then it cometh not of works. And to this end tend all the Prophets, as St. Peter saith in the tenth of the Acts, "Of Christ, all the prophets (saith St. Peter,) do witness, that through his name all they that believe in him shall receive the remission of sins." And after this wise, to be justified only by this true and lively faith in Christ, speak all the old and ancient authors, both Greeks and Latins. Of whom I will specially rehearse three, Hilary, Basil, and Ambrose.

St. Hilary saith these words plainly in the ninth canon upon Matthew; "Faith only justifieth." And St. Basil, a Greek author, writeth thus: This is a perfect and a whole glorying in God, when a man doth not boast himself, for his own justice, but knoweth himself certainly to be unworthy of true justice, but to be justified by only faith in Christ. This is a perfect and a whole rejoicing in God, when a man vaunteth not himself for his own righteousness, but acknowledgeth himself to lack true justice and right

eousness, and to be justified by the only faith in Christ. And Paul (saith he) doth glory in the contempt of his own righteousness, and that he looketh for his righteousness of God by faith.'

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These be the very words of St. Basil. Ambrose, a Latin author, saith these words: the ordinance of God, that he which believeth in Christ should be saved, without works, by faith only, freely receiving remission of his sins.'

Consider diligently these words, "Without works, by faith only, freely we receive remission of our sin." What can be spoken more plainly, than to say, that "freely, without works, by faith only we obtain remission of our sins?" These and other like sentences, that we be justified by faith only, freely and without works, we do read ofttimes in the best and most ancient writers. As beside Hilary, Basil, and St. Ambrose, before rehearsed, we read the same in Origen, St. Chrysostom, St. Cyprian, St. Austin, Prosper, Ecomenius, Photius, Bernardus, Anselm, and many other authors, Greek and Latin.

Nevertheless, this sentence, "that we be justified by faith only," is not so meant of them, that the said justifying faith is alone in man, without true repentance, hope, charity, dread and fear of God, at any time or season. Nor, when they say, "that we be justified freely," they mean not that we should or might afterward be idle, and that nothing should be required on our parts afterward. Neither do they mean, so to be justified without our good works, that

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we should do no good works at all; more expressed at large hereafter. sition, “that we be justified by faith only, freely and

without works," is spoken for to take away clearly all merit of our works, as being insufficient to deserve our justification at God's hands, and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of man and the goodness of God, the great infirmity of ourselves, and the might and power of God, the imperfectness of our own works, and the most abundant grace of our Saviour Christ; and thereby wholly for to ascribe the merit and deserving of our justification unto Christ only and his most precious blood-shedding.

This faith the holy Scripture teacheth; this is the strong rock and foundation of Christian religion; this doctrine all old and ancient authors of Christ's church do approve this doctrine advanceth and setteth forth the true glory of Christ, and suppresseth the vain glory of man. This whosoever denieth is not to be reputed for a true Christian man, nor for a setter forth of Christ's glory, but for an adversary of Christ and his Gospel, and for a setter forth of men's vain glory.

And although this doctrine be never so true (as it is most true indeed,) that we be justified freely, without all merit of our own good works (as St. Paul doth express it,) and freely, by this lively and perfect faith in Christ only, as the ancient authors use to speak it; yet this true doctrine must be also truly understood and most plainly declared, lest carnal men should take unjustly occasion thereby to live carnally after the appetite and will of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And because no man should err, by mistakes of this true doctrine, I shall plainly and shortly so declare the right understanding of the same, that no man shall justly think that he may

thereby take any occasion of carnal liberty to follow the desires of the flesh, or that thereby any kind of sin shall be committed, or any ungodly living the more used.

First, you shall understand, that in our justification by Christ, it is not all one thing the office of God unto man, and the office of man unto God. Justification is not the office of man, but of God, for man cannot justify himself by his own works, neither in part, nor in the whole: for that were the greatest arrogance and presumption of man that Antichrist could erect against God, to affirm that a man might, by his own works, take away and purge his own sins, and so justify himself. But justification is the office of God only, and is not a thing which we render unto him, but which we receive of him: not which we give to him, but which we take of him by his free mercy, and by the only merits of his most dearly beloved Son, our only Redeemer, Saviour, and Justifier, Jesus Christ.

So that the true understanding of this doctrine, "We be justified freely by faith, without works," or "that we be justified by faith in Christ only," is not that this, our own act, to believe in Christ, or this our faith in Christ, which is within us, doth justify us and merit our justification unto us (for that were to count ourselves to be justified by some act or virtue, that is within ourselves.) But the true understanding and meaning thereof is, that although we hear God's word and believe it, although we have faith, hope, charity, repentance, dread and fear of God within us, and do never so many good works thereunto; yet we must renounce the merit of all our said virtues, of