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 Judgment: 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.

De bonis operibus.

Bona opera, quæ sunt fructus fidei, et justificatos sequuntur, quanquam peccata nostra expiare, et divini judicii severitatem ferre non possunt; Deo tamen grata sunt, et accepta in Christo, atque ex vera et viva fide necessario profluunt, ut plane ex illis, æque fides viva cognosci possit, atque arbor ex fructu judicari.

NOTES ON THE TEXT OF ARTICLE XII.

The following phrases may be noticed on comparing the Latin with the English: 'justificatos sequuntur' stands for 'follow after justification.' 'Expiare peccata' presents a more definite idea than the English 'put away sins.' 'Viva' is rendered 'lively,' as in 1 Pet. i. 3. It will be observed that in the Eleventh Article Faith is used without any qualifying epithet, but there can be no reasonable doubt of the identity of the Faith spoken of in both these Articles, and, therefore, this epithet lively must be understood as equally qualifying the word Faith in both.

This Article was added in Forty-two Articles of 1552.

1562, not having been one of the It is said by Archdeacon Hard

wick to have been adapted from the Wurtemberg Con

History of the Articles,' p. 379.

fession, but the resemblance is rather slight, and the language of Augustine has been probably the common basis. The Elizabethan divines no doubt had in view the Antinomian Anabaptists as well as the Romanists in the statements of this Article.

THE MAIN DIVISIONS OF ARTICLE XII.

1. The imperfection before God of the good works of men faithful and justified.

2. The nature and ground of the regard God has to such works.

3. The relation of good works to faith.

The Scripture proof may conveniently and clearly be grouped round these principal divisions.

OBSERVATIONS ON ARTICLE XII.

The Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian controversies of necessity involved the question of the value of the good works of the Christian. We do not recur to the history of those controversies. The teaching of the scholastic divines on the merit of good works is deferred until we come to the Thirteenth Article. We pass on to the Council of Trent (Session VI. canon 32), 'Whosoever shall say that the good works of a justified man are in such a sense the gifts of God that they are not good merits of the justified man himself, or that a justified man by good works which are done by him through the grace of God, and the merits of Jesus Christ, of whom he is a living member, does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the actual attainment of eternal life if he die in grace, together with increase of glory, let him be anathema.'

It will scarcely be necessary to produce authorities in addition to those already brought forward under the Eleventh Article. The passages from the Homily, from Hooker, and from Bull sufficiently cover the ground of this Article also. The student who desires to read more on the Roman opinions of merit in the good works of the justified will find ample

information in that treasure-house of learning, 'Field Of the Church.'

'1

This Article sets the seal on the preceding, inasmuch as good works are said to follow justification, and cannot therefore concur to obtaining it. Bishop Bull, and others of his school, evade this difficulty by their doctrine of the first and second justification. He says that eleven works of repentance are necessary with faith to the first justification, and that to the second justification, many more works are necessary and that of these this Article speaks.

6

Bishop O'Brien well observes: 2 What foundation does this Article or any other Article supply for this distinction of a first and second justification? . . . If there be another justification the Articles do not speak of it, or even glance at it. They tell us, indeed, of a justification before which no good works are done (Art. XIII.), and after which all good works are done (XII.). But they do not intimate to us, in any way, that this is but inchoate, and that there is another justification to the obtaining of which all these good works are necessary.'

It may be further noted that as good works are said in this Article to be the fruits of faith, they are distinguished from faith as the fruit is distinguished from the tree. Does not this cut up by the roots the attempt to explain faith in Art. XI. as including works? Or can faith in Art. XI. be taken in one sense as faith together with works, and in Art. XII. in another sense as distinguished from the works which it produces?

1 Book iii. Appendix, chap. xii.

2Nature and Effects of Faith,' p. 422.

NOTES ON THE TEXT OF ARTICLE XIII.

The Latin word here used for inspiration is 'afflatus.' Where the English says 'School-authors,' the Latin, less precisely, has multi.' The technical phrase de congruo' answers to the English 'of congruity.' 'The nature of sin' is in this Article, as in the ninth, 'peccati rationem.'

The Schoolmen asserted two modes of meriting reward, 'de congruo,' and 'de condigno.' Man may merit at the hands of God in the former mode before grace has been received, in the latter mode after the reception of grace. Dr. Hey1 gives this illustration to explain the distinction: 'A servant deserves

1 Lectures on the Articles,' xiii. 14.

his wages 'ex condigno;' he may deserve support in sickness or old age, 'ex congruo.' Sometimes, instead of 'ex congruo,' the phrase 'ex proportione' is used.'

Beveridge1 quotes from De Soto: 'A work is congruous, to which a reward is not due from justice, but from a certain fitness;' and from Romæus: 'That is said to be merit "de condigno," to which a reward must be rendered according to the requirement of justice, so that between the merit and the reward equality of quantity holds, according to the principles of mutual justice. But one is said to deserve "de congruo," when between the merit and the reward there is a parity not of quantity but of proportion.' In plain English, the merit of condignity is such that there is an absolute failure of justice if it receive not recompense. This agrees with the doctrine of the Council of Trent noticed in Article XII. on works after justification, and will explain our allusion there to the scholastic doctrine of merit. And though the principle of congruity claims less at the hands of strict justice, yet it amounts to an equal certainty, inasmuch as the Most High must be conceived as always and without fail doing that which is congrous and proportional to His perfection and the nature of things to do.

Thus if man can ensure the bestowal of grace on the principle of congruity when still in his natural condition; and can claim it, after grace received, on the principle of condignity, or strict right and justice, we are brought round by a circuitous path, and in spite of many words about grace, to much the same result as that which follows from the doctrines of Pelagius, namely that man by working in a particular manner ensures his own salvation.

This is one of the original Articles of 1552. No source is suggested for its expressions.

OBSERVATIONS ON ARTICLE XIII.

The Fathers were naturally led to discuss the nature of heathen virtues, but this question was scarcely within the view

1 Art. xiii. note.