either by doing what is forbidden, or by not doing what is commanded.
Justification is a talent or gift which should be made to bear fruit,
or we shall be punished for the neglect.
"By justification we are raised to the dignity of Sons of God, heirs
of his kingdom; and this entails upon us the duty of acting in a way
becoming to so high a dignity. If thou wilt enter into life, keep the
commandments,' said the Lord (St. Matt. xix:17). By justification we
are incorporated with Christ, like a branch growing on a vine; but
if the branch produces no fruit it will be cut off and cast into the
fire (St. John xv:6). Hence the grace of justification is compared
by our Savior, not to a pond, but to a fountain, whose waters reach
unto heaven: 'But the water that I will give him shall become in him a
fountain of water springing up into life everlasting" (St. John iv:14).
_"How Christ's Redemption is Applied to Men that They May Be
Justified and Sanctified:_ "Jesus Christ died for all mankind; he
truly died that 'he might taste death for all' (Hebrews ii:9). Yet we
know that all men will not be saved but only those who do his will,
for we read in St. Paul: 'And being consummated, he became to all
that obey him the cause of eternal salvation' (Hebrews v:9). And so,
notwithstanding Christ's redemption, it is stated in the gospel that
some 'shall go into everlasting punishment' (St. Matt. xxv:46). St.
Paul did not say that God will save all men, but, 'who will have all
men to be saved' (I Timothy ii:4), implying thereby that for salvation,
man's will and co-operation is required to fulfill the conditions, and
use the means appointed by God himself for the purpose.
"Only those who "have washed their robes and have made them white in
the blood of the Lamb" (Apocalypse [Rev.] vii:14), that is, who have
the merits of Christ applied to them, and who persevere to the end in
doing what is commanded, will be saved.
"The direct means instituted by Christ himself for applying his
infinite merits to the souls of men are the holy sacraments, which are
so many channels instituted by Jesus Christ to convey to men his grace
purchased for us at the price of his most precious blood.
_"The Holy Sacraments:_ "The Catholic church teaches that there
are truly and properly seven, and only seven sacraments of the new law,
instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, and necessary for the salvation
of mankind, though not all of them necessary for every person, as, for
instance, holy order and matrimony.
"These seven sacraments are:
"1st, Baptism, by which we are made Christians, children of God, and
members of his holy church..
"2nd, Confirmation, by which we receive the Holy Ghost, to make us
strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ.
"3rd, Holy Eucharist, which is the true body and blood, with the soul
and divinity, of Jesus Christ, under the appearances of bread and wine.
"4th, Penance, by which the sins that we commit after baptism are
forgiven.
"5th, Extreme Unction, which in serious or dangerous illness, comforts
the soul, remits sin, and restores health of body, if God sees it to be
expedient.
"6th, Holy Order, by which bishops, priests, and other ministers of the
Church are ordained.
"7th, Matrimony, the sacrament which sanctifies the union by marriage
of man and woman.
"Each of these has the three conditions necessary for a sacrament
understood in the strict sense of the word, namely, the outward sign,
the inward grace, and the institution by Jesus Christ, who alone has
the power to institute sacraments, that is, outward signs as means of
grace."
III.
THE PROTESTANT VIEW OF THE ATONEMENT.
There are some slight variations in the views of the leading
subdivisions of Protestant Christendom in relation to the Atonement;
but these do not so much concern the nature of the Atonement itself
as the manner of appropriating or receiving its benefits. At any rate
their views of the Atonement are so nearly alike that they may be
stated with sufficient clearness from any one of the standard works of
these subdivisions.[A] The statement here used to represent the views
of the leading subdivisions of Protestant Christendom is from the
"Westminster Confession of Faith" of the Presbyterian church.
[Footnote A: "At the time of the Reformation, we have seen that both
Lutheran and Calvanistic theologians adopted the Anselmic theory of
a strict satisfaction. This soteriology enters into all the Lutheran
and Calvanistic symbols of the continent, and into the Episcopalian,
Presbyterian, and Congregational symbols of England and America. So
far, therefore, as the principal Protestant creeds are concerned, the
theory of an absolute necessity of atonement, and a strict satisfaction
of justice by the suffering of Christ, is the prevalent one" ("History
of Christian Doctrine," Shedd, Vol. II, p. 349).]
_Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof:_
Section I.--Our first parents being seduced by the subtlety and
temptation of Satan, sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. This their
sin God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit,
having purposed to order it to his own glory.
"Section II.--By this sin they fell from their original righteousness,
and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled
in all faculties and parts of soul and body.
"Section III.--They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this
sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted nature
conveyed to all their posterity, descending from them by ordinary
generation.
"Section IV.--From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly
indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly
inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.
"Section V.--This corruption of nature, during this life, doth remain
in those that are regenerated; and although it be through Christ
pardoned and mortified, yet both itself, and all the motions thereof,
are truly and properly sin.
"Section VI.--Every sin, both original and actual, being a
transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto,
doth, in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he is
bound over to the wrath of God, and curse of law, and so made subject
to death, with all miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal.
_"Of God's Covenant with Man:_ Section I.--The distance between
God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do
owe obedience unto him as their Creator, yet they could never have any
fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary
condescension on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by
way of covenant.
"Section II.--The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works,
wherein life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity, upon,
condition of perfect and personal obedience.
"Section III.--Man by his fall having made himself incapable of life by
that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called
the covenant of grace: whereby he freely offereth unto sinners life and
salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him, that they
may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained
unto life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.
"Section IV.--This covenant of grace is frequently set forth in the
Scripture by the name of a testament, in reference to the death of
Jesus Christ the testator, and to the everlasting inheritance, with all
things belonging to it, therein bequeathed.
"Section V.--This covenant was differently administered in the time
of the law, and in the time of the gospel: under the law it was
administered by promises, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb,
and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all
fore-signifying Christ to come, which were for that time sufficient
and efficacious, through the operation of the Spirit, to instruct and
build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they had
full remission of sins, and eternal salvation: and is called the Old
Testament.
"Section VI.--Under the gospel, when Christ the substance was
exhibited, the ordinances in which this covenant is dispensed are, the
preaching the Word, and the administration of the sacraments of baptism
and the Lord's supper: which, though fewer in number, and administered
with more simplicity and less outward glory, yet in them it is held
forth in more fulness, evidence, and spiritual efficacy, to all
nations, both Jews and Gentiles; and is called the New Testament. There
are not, therefore, two covenants of grace differing in substance, but
one and the same under various dispensations.
_"Of Christ the Mediator:_ Section I."--It pleased God in his
eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, his only begotten
Son, to be mediator between God and man; the Prophet, Priest, and King;
the Head and Savior of his Church; the Heir of all things; and Judge of
the world: unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his
seed, and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified,
and glorified.
"Section II.--The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being
very and eternal God, of one substance, and equal with the Father, did,
when the fulness of time was come, take upon him man's nature, with all
the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without
sin; being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the
Virgin Mary, of her substance. So that two whole, perfect, and distinct
natures, the Godhead and the Manhood, were inseparably joined together
in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which
person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator
between God and man.
"Section III.--The Lord Jesus, in his human nature thus united to the
divine, was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure;
having in him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; in whom it
pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell: to the end that being
holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth, he might be
thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a Mediator and Surety.
Which office he took not unto himself, but was thereunto called by his
Father; who put all power and judgment into his hands, and gave him
commandment to execute the same.
"Section IV.--This office the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake;
which that he might discharge, he was made under the law, and did
perfectly fulfil it endured most grievous torments immediately in his
soul, and most painful sufferings in his body; was crucified, and
died; was buried, and remained under the power of death, yet saw no
corruption. On the third day he arose from the dead, with the same body
in which he suffered; with which he ascended into heaven, and there
sitteth at the right hand of his Father, making intercession; and shall
return to judge men and angels at the end of the world.
"Section VII.--Christ, in the work of mediation, acteth according to
both natures; by each nature doing that which is proper to itself;
yet by reason of the unity of the person, that which is proper to one
nature is sometimes in Scripture attributed to the person denominated
by the other nature.
"Section VIII.--To all those for whom Christ hath purchased redemption,
he doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same:
making intercession for them; and revealing unto them, in and by the
Word, the mysteries of salvation; effectually persuading them by his
Spirit to believe and obey; and governing their hearts by his Word and
Spirit; overcoming all their enemies by his almighty power and wisdom,
in such manner and ways as are most consonant to his wonderful and
unsearchable dispensation" (Westminster Confession of Faith).
IV.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT SOTERIOLOGY.
The difference between the Soteriology of these great divisions
of Christendom--Catholic and Protestant--consists chiefly in the
conception of the mode in which the Atonement of the Son of God became
available to the believers. Shedd, in pointing out these differences,
states that the decisions of the Council of Trent, which, as we
have seen, formulated the church's doctrine on "Original Sin," and
"Justification," "makes inward holiness in conjunction with the merits
of Christ the ground of justification. The unintentional confounding of
the distinction between justification and sanctification," which Shedd
admits appears occasionally in the writings of some of the Christian
Fathers--Augustine especially--"becomes a deliberate and emphatic
identification in the scheme of the papal church." He then sets forth
the Protestant view as follows:
_The Protestant Position:_ "The Anselmic and Protestant
soteriologies mean by the term 'justification,' that divine act,
instantaneous and complete, by which sin is pardoned. If we
distinguish the entire work of redemption into two parts, a negative
and a positive, justification in the Pauline and in the Reformed
sanctification would include the former and would include nothing more.
Justification is the negative acquittal from condemnation, and not in
the least the positive infusion of righteousness, or production of
holiness. This positive element, the Reformers were careful to teach,
invariably accompanies the negative; but they were equally careful
to teach that it is not identical with it. The forgiveness of sin is
distinct and different from the sanctification of the heart. It is an
antecedent which is always followed, indeed, by its consequent; but
this does not render the consequent a substitute for the antecedent, or
one and the same thing with it."
In a foot note our author quotes the Westminster Confession on the
distinction of justification and sanctification:
"The Westminster Confession thus states the distinction between
justification and sanctification. 'Although sanctification be
inseparably joined with justification, yet they differ, in that
God in justification _imputeth_ the righteousness of Christ; in
sanctification, his Spirits _infuseth_ grace, and enableth to the
exercise thereof: in the former, sin is _pardoned_; in the other it is
_subdued_; the _one_ doth equally free all believers from the revenging
wrath of God, and that perfectly in this life, that they never fall
into condemnation; the _other_ is neither equal in all, nor in this
life perfect in any, but growing up to perfection" (Larger Catechism,
Q. 77).
Shedd, continuing the discussion of the differences between the
Catholics and Protestants upon this subject, says:
"The Council of Trent resolved _justification_ into _sanctification_,
and in the place of a gratuitous justification and remission of sins
through the expiation of the Redeemer, substituted the most subtle form
of the doctrine of justification by works that has yet appeared, or
that can appear. Man is justified and accepted at the bar of justice
by his _external acts_ of obedience to the moral or the ecclesiastical
law. This is, indeed, the doctrine that prevails in the common practice
of the papal church, but it is not the form in which it appears in the
Tridentine canons. According to these, man is justified by an inward
and spiritual act which is denominated the act of faith; by a truly
divine and holy habit or principle infused by the gracious working of
the Holy Spirit. The ground of the sinner's justification is thus a
divine and a gracious one. God works in the sinful soul to will and
to do, and by making it inherently just justifies it. And all this is
accomplished through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ; sot
that, in justification there is a combination of the objective work of
Christ with the subjective character of the believer. This statement
is the more subtle, because it distinctly refers the infused grace or
holiness to God as the author, and thereby seems to preclude the notion
of self-righteousness. But it is fundamentally erroneous, because this
infused righteousness, or holiness of heart, upon which remission of
sins rests in part, is not _piacular_.[A] It has in it nothing of
the nature of a satisfaction to justice. So far forth, therefore,
as infused grace in the heart is made a ground and procuring cause
of the pardon of sin, the judicial aspects and relations of sin are
overlooked, and man is received into the divine favor without any true
and proper expiation of his guilt."
[Footnote A: "Piacular," expiatory, atoning.]
Our author quotes Hooker as in substantial agreement with the above
views as follows:
"Then what is the fault of the church of Rome? Not that she requireth
works at their hands which will be saved: but that she attributeth unto
works a power of satisfying God for sin" (Hooker "On Justification,"
Works II, 538).
_Another Statement of the Protestant Attitude:_ "It was in their
profound sense of the reality of sin, and of its dominion in the human
will, that the Protestants laid the foundation of their theology. The
body of the Reformers rested on the Anselmic idea of satisfaction [in
the Atonement] which likewise formed a part of the opposing [i. e.,
the Roman Catholic] creed. The point of difference was on the vital
question how the soul, burdened with self-condemnation, is to obtain
forgiveness of sins and peaceful reunion to God in the character of a
reconciled father. In the teachings, injunctions, services, ceremonies
of the Church, the Reformers had sought for this infinite good in vain.
They found it in the doctrine of gratuitous pardon, from the bare
Mercy of God, through the mediation of Christ; a pardon that waits for
nothing but acceptance on the part of the soul--the belief, the trust,
the faith of the penitent. Everything of the nature of satisfaction
or merit on the part of the offender is precluded, by the utterly
gratuitous nature of the gift, by the sufficiency of the Redeemer's
expiation. Every assertion of the necessity of works or merit on the
side of the offender, as the ground of forgiveness, is a disparagement
of the Redeemer's Mercy and of his expiatory office. Faith, thus
laying hold of a free forgiveness and reconnecting the soul with God,
is the fountain of a new life of holiness, which depends not on fear
and homage to law, but on gratitude and on filial sentiments. Christ
himself nourishes this new life by spiritual influences that flow into
the soul through the channel of its fellowship with him. Justification
is thus a forensic[A] term; it is equivalent to the remission of sins.
To justify, signifies not to make the offender righteous, to deliver
him from the accusation of the law by the bestowal of a pardon. Saving
faith is not a virtue to be rewarded, but an apprehensive act; the hand
that takes the free gift. Such, in a brief statement, was the cardinal
principle of the Protestant interpretation of the Gospel. The Christian
life has its centre in this experience of forgiveness. Virtues of
character and victories over temptation grow out of it. Christian
ethics are united to Christian theology by this vital bond.
[Footnote A: A term used in argumentation or discussion.]
[Footnote: This idea of justification is the keynote in Luther's
"Commentary on the Epistle to the Gallatians," and Malancthon's
"Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans." It is the distinctive
feature of the Protestant exegesis of the writings of Paul" (Fisher).]
_The Authority for Protestant Conclusions:_ But to what authority
could the Reformers appeal in behalf of their proposition? What
assurance had they of its truth? How did they arrive at the knowledge
of it? They had found this obscured and half-forgotten truth recorded
as they believed with perfect clearness, in the Scriptures. The
authority of the Scriptures was fully acknowledged by the church in
which they had been trained, however it might superadd to them other
authoritative sources of knowledge, and however it might deny the
competence of the individual to interpret the Bible for himself.
That Christ spoke in the Scriptures all admitted. What his voice
was the Reformer could not doubt; for the truth that he uttered
was one of which they had immediate, spiritual recognition. Their
interpretation verified itself to their hearts by the light and peace
which that truth brought with it, as well as to their understandings
on a critical examination of the text. The church then denied their
interpretation and commanded them to abandon it, was in error; it
could not be authorized, infallible interpreter of Holy Writ. Thus the
traditional belief in the authority of the Roman church gave way, and
the principle of the exclusive authority of the Scriptures, as the rule
of faith, took its place. By this process the second of the distinctive
principles of Protestantism was reached. That the meaning of the Bible
is sufficiently plain and intelligible was implied in this conclusion.
Hence, the right of private judgment is another side of the same
doctrine" ("The Reformation," by Geo. P. Fisher, D. D.--Scribners--pp.
460-462).
_The Roman Catholic Side of the Controversy:_ On the Roman side of
the controversy it is but proper that the statement of the Council of
Trent on essential points at issue should be quoted:
"Justification is not the mere remission of sins, but also the
sanctification and renovation of the inward man through the voluntary
reception of grace and gifts of grace; whereby an unjust man becomes
just, the enemy a friend, so that he may be an heir according to the
hope of eternal life. * * * The only formal cause of justification
is the justice * * * of God, not that by which he himself is just,
but that by which he makes us just--that namely by which we are
gratuitously renewed by him in the spirit of our minds, and are not
only reputed, but really are and are denominated just, receiving
justice into ourselves each one according to his own measure, which the
Holy Spirit imparts to each as he pleases, and also, according to each
one's own disposition and co-operation. * * *
* * * When the Apostle asserts that man is justified by faith and
gratuitously, his language is to be understood in that sense which the
constant agreement of the Catholic church has affixed to it; in such a
manner, namely, as that we are said to be justified by faith, because
faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of
all justification, without which it is impossible to please God (Heb.
xi:6). And we are said to be justified gratuitously, because none of
those things which precede justification, whether faith or works,
merits the grace itself of justification."[A]
[Footnote A: Canones Concilii, Tridentini: De Justificatione vii, viii.]
The contrast between Protestant and Catholic views on justification are
even more distinctly seen when the anathematizing clauses of the Trent
Council utterances are considered, and which are added to guard the
Catholic faith. They follow:
"If any one shall say that the sinner is justified by faith alone, in
the sense that nothing else is required which may co-operate towards
the attainment of the grace of justification, and that the sinner does
not need to be prepared and disposed by the motion of his own will:
_let him be accursed_.
"If any one shall say, that men are justified either by the sole
imputation of the righteousness of Christ, or by the sole remission of
sin, to the exclusion of that grace and charity which is shed abroad in
their hearts by the Holy Spirit, and which inheres in them, or shall
say that the grace whereby we are justified is merely and only the
favor of God: _let him be accursed_.
"If any one shall say that justiying faith is nothing but confidence in
the divine mercy remitting sin on account of Christ, or that this faith
is the sole thing by which we are justified; _let him be accursed_."
_Protestant Rejoinder:_ Upon this statement Shedd makes the
following comment, with which, we think, not even Catholics would be
displeased, as it but emphasizes their position on justification: