74 Faith of Grace is living, and works by Love. DEFIDE Holy Spirit is asked and received; through Whom, Love Rom. 5, being shed abroad in our hearts, the law is fulfilled, not from fear of punishment, but from love of righteousness.

5.

3.

xxii.

40. Therefore let not the incautious mind be at all deceived, so as to think that it knows God, if it confess Him with a dead faith, that is, without good works, after the manner of devils: and on this account entertain no further doubt of attaining unto life everlasting, because the Lord John 17, says, But this is life everlasting, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. In truth, that other also ought to come into his mind, which 1 John is written, Herein know we Him, if we keep His Command2, 3. 4. ments; whoso saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His Commandments, is a liar, and in him the truth is not. And, that no one may think that His Commandments pertain only unto faith; (although no one has dared to assert this, especially in that He spake Commandments, and lest these Mat. 22, by their number should dissipate the thought, On these two hangeth the whole Law and the Prophets;) albeit it may be rightly said, that the Commandments of God pertain unto faith alone, if not dead faith, but that living faith be understood, which worketh through love; yet after did John himself declare his meaning, when he said, This is His Commandment, that we believe in the Name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another.

40.

1 John

3, 23.

amur.

41. This then is profitable, to believe in God with a right faith, to worship God, to know God, that we may both obtain 1 mere- from Him help to live well, and, in case we sin, may earn' pardon from Him; not continuing carelessly in the things which He hates, but departing from them, and saying unto P8.41,4. Him, I said, O Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee: whereas they have not any one to whom to say it, who believe not in Him; and they say it in vain, who, being so far from Him, are alien from the grace longe. of the Mediator. Whence are those words in the Book of

2 tam

15, 2.

Wisdom, which I know not how a security fraught with ruin Wisd. interprets; eren though we sin, we are Thine; since in truth we have a good and great God, Who is both willing and able to heal the sins of them who repent, not One Who dares not to destroy utterly them who continue in their evil mind.

The Judgment, threatened to evil life, is damnation. 75

RIBUS.

Finally, after having said, we are Thine; he added, knowing ET opeThy power: that power certainly from which the sinner cannot withdraw himself or hide himself. Therefore he went on, and added; But we will not sin, knowing that we are accounted Thine. For who that entertains worthy thoughts of the dwelling with God, wherein all are by predestination accounted, who according to the purpose are called, but must strive so to live, as is suitable to such a dwelling? Whereas therefore John also says, These things I have written unto 1 John you, that ye sin not; and, if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is an effectual intercession1 for our sins: this is not his exoraobject, that we may sin with security; but that, departing from sin, if we have committed any, by reason of That Advocate, Whom unbelievers have not, we may in no way despair of pardon.

1

2, 1. 2.

tio.

12.

42. Neither therefore out of these words are we to promise xxiii. any milder condition to them who would so believe in God, as to continue in evil conduct; much less out of those where the Apostle says, They who have sinned without law, shall Rom. 2, perish without law, but they who have sinned in the law, shall be judged through the law; as if in this place there were some difference between perishing and being judged, whereas it is the same thing expressed by another word. For the Scriptures use to put 'judgment' also for eternal damnation; as in the Gospel the Lord says, The hour shall come, wherein John 5, all that are in the graves shall hear His voice; and they 28. 29. that have done well shall go forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done ill unto the resurrection of judgment. Nor is it here said, They that have believed' shall do this, and they that have not believed' shall do that, but, They that have done well shall do this, They that have done ill that. That is to say, a good life cannot be separated from faith which worketh through love; yea rather the faith itself is a good life. We see therefore that the Lord said, the resurrection of judgment, in place of the resurrection of eternal damnation. Out of all, that is, who shall rise again (where without doubt will they also be who altogether believe not, for neither are they not in their graves) He made two parts, declaring that the one shall rise again unto the

76

If sin is only judged,' so may be unbelief.

DEFIDE resurrection of life, the other unto the resurrection of judgment.

18.

43. But if they say that we are not to understand in that place them also who altogether believe not, but them who shall be saved through fire, because they have believed, even although they have lived ill, so as to pronounce that by the term judgment is meant the punishment of these latter which is for a time. (Although this were a most bold assertion, when altogether the Lord hath divided all that shall rise again, among whom without doubt unbelievers also will be, into two portions, life' and 'judgment;' willing that the judgment be understood to be everlasting, although this He has not added, in like manner as the life also. For neither saith He, unto the resurrection of everlasting life; albeit He surely meant not that any thing else should be understood.) Let them however see to it, what answer they will make, John 3, where He saith, But he that believeth not, is judged already. For in this place without doubt they either understand that judgment is put for everlasting punishment, or will dare to assert that even unbelievers will be saved through fire; forasmuch as, He that believeth not, saith He, is judged already; that is, is already appointed unto judgment: and there will not be any thing for them to promise as a great largess to them who believe and live evil lives, seeing that they also who believe not, will not be destroyed, but judged. And if they dare not assert this, let them not dare to promise any thing more gentle to them, of whom it is said, they shall be judged through the law; because it is certain. that the term judgment is wont to be used for everlasting damnation. What, that we find that they who sin knowingly, are under terms not only in no sense more gentle, but even worse? For these are they especially who have received the Rom. 4, law. For, as it is written, Where law is not, neither is there Rom. 7, transgression. Hence also is that other, Lust I was ignorant of, but that the Law said, Thou shalt not lust. Thus, having taken occasion, sin through the Commandment worked in me all manner of lust; and many other things which the same Apostle says on this subject. From this more grievous

15.

7.8.

And therefore are in no such condition as to need Baptism without due preparation.

Case of Jewish and Gentile state unfairly quoted. 77

state of condemnation we are set free by the Grace of the ET OPEHoly Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord, which, by the RIBUS. shedding abroad of love in our hearts, bestoweth on us a delight in righteousness, whereby to overcome the inordinateness of lust. Hence therefore it is made certain, that we are not only to understand nothing more gentle, but something more grievous in their case, of whom it is said, They, who have sinned in the law, shall be judged through the ́law; than in their case, who, sinning without law, shall perish without law: nor is the word judgment in this place. put for a punishment which passes away, but for that whereby they also that believe not shall be judged.

44. For they who make use of this sentence in order to promise salvation through fire, to them who, although believers, are living most evil lives, so as to say to them, They who have sinned without law, shall perish without law; but they who have sinned in the law, shall be judged through the law; as though it had been said, shall not perish, but shall be saved through fire; could not have observed this point either, that the Apostle spake this of them who without law, and of them who in the law, have sinned, when treating of the Gentiles and the Jews; that he might shew that not unto the Gentiles only, but unto both there was need of the grace of Christ to set them free: which the whole of the Epistle to the Romans evidently shews. Now then let them promise, if they will, salvation. through fire, unto the Jews also sinning in the law, of whom it is said, They shall be judged through the law, the grace of Christ not setting them free, seeing that of these it is said, They shall be judged through the law. Which if they do not, lest they come into collision with themselves, asserting as they do that they are bound with a most grievous charge of unbelief; wherefore do they transfer unto unbelievers, and believers, in what relates to faith in Christ, what was said of them who without law, and of them who in the law, have sinned, when the subject treated of was concerning the Jews, and concerning the Gentiles, that both should be invited unto the grace of Christ? For neither was it said, They, who xxiv. have sinned without faith, shall perish without faith; but they, who have sinned in the faith, shall be judged through

78 Christian Liberty. St. Peter's sentence on evil livers. DEFIDE the faith; but it was said, without law,' and, in the law;' that it might sufficiently appear that it affected that cause, which was being treated of, between Gentiles and Jews, not that which is between good and evil Christians.

45. Although, even if they would have law in that place taken in the sense of faith, which were too absurd and out of hinc. place, yet even on this1 they may read a most open sentence of Peter, who, (speaking of them who had taken for an occasion of the flesh, and a cloak of evil practice, that where it is written, that we, who pertain unto the New Testament, Gal. 4, are sons, not of the bond-woman, but of the free-woman, in 31.(5,1.) so Vulg. the liberty wherein Christ hath set us free: and had thought

13.

that this was to live freely, that, as though secure of so great redemption, they should think whatsoever pleased them to Gal. 5, be lawful to them, not considering what is said, Ye have been called into liberty, brethren; only make not your liberty an 1 Pet. 2, occasion of the flesh: whence also Paul himself says, As free, yet not having your liberty as a cloak of evil practice,) says 2 Pet. 2, of them in his second Epistle also, These are wells that are

16.

17-22. dry, and clouds tossed with a tempest; unto whom the gloom

nal

and so

some

Mss.

of darkness is reserved for ever; for, when they speak proud words of vanity, they entice in the lusts of the wantonness of 2 margi- the flesh them who are but just escaped, after living in reading, error, offering unto them liberty, whereas they themselves are slaves of corruption. For of whom one is overcome, unto Vulg. and him is he made over as a slave. For if, whilst fleeing from the pollutions of the world unto the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter state becomes unto them worse than the former. For it were better for them not to know the way of righteousness, than, when they know it, to turn back from the holy Commandment delivered unto them. But it hath happened unto them, what is said in the true proverb, The dog is turned unto his own vomit again, and the sow which was washed unto her wallowing in the mire. Why any longer, in opposition to this most manifest truth, is a better condition promised unto them who have known the way of righteousness, that is, the Lord Christ, and who live abandoned lives, than if they had altogether been ignorant of it; whereas it is most openly said, It were better for them