for this office is not because there is any special virtue in it, or because it is the greatest of all Christian graces, for charity is greater (1 Cor. xiii. 2, 13), but because faith is peculiarly fit for this particular office, since there is in it that element of self-surrender, of trust, confidence, and reliance on another, which necessarily excludes all reliance on self and our own merits. Had we been justified by something else, as love, there would have been the possibility of reliance on self, and the notion of earning salvation would not have been in the same way shut out. Further, it is faith which enables us to realise the unseen. It is "the assurance of things hoped for, the proving of things not seen" (Heb. xi. 1); and thus it makes things distant become near, and admits them to close embraces.

Before passing on to the next section, it may be well to call attention to the fact that the Article maintains a wise silence on more than one subject connected with the doctrine of justification by faith, which was keenly disputed between the Romans and Lutherans in the sixteenth century. It has already been mentioned that the Article, seemingly of set purpose, ignores the Lutheran statement (condemned by the Council of Trent 1) that a man is justified if he believes himself to be justified; but besides this there are two important matters on which the Article is markedly silent, (1) the question of the presence or absence of charity in justifying faith, and (2) the theory of an "imputed" righteousness. The first of these subjects was keenly debated at the time of the Reformation. The school

"If anyone shall say that a man is absolved from his sins and justified because he assuredly believes himself to be absolved and justified; or that no one is truly justified save he who believes himself to be justified; and that by this faith alone absolution and justification are perfected let him be anathema."-Sess. VI. canon xiv.

men in their teaching on justification had drawn a distinction between "fides informis," a bare faith, and fides formata," a faith informed by charity,1 and had maintained that the latter alone is instrumental in justifying. In this they are naturally followed by the Tridentine divines. Luther, on the other hand, while accepting the distinction thus drawn, insisted that it is "fides informis" which justifies, and argues that to say the contrary is to maintain justification by works. The whole question is wisely ignored in the Article, though the Homily says pointedly that love is not excluded, but is "joined with faith in every man that is justified."

The second subject mentioned above, the theory of an imputed" righteousness, is developed by Luther in his commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians. According to it, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, and our sins are imputed to Him. It is in connection with this that the notion of a "legal fiction comes into most prominence, and it is difficult to free the theory as it is maintained by Protestant divines from the charge of unreality. But as (like the points just noticed) there is not a word concerning it in our own Article, there is no need to consider the subject further here.

1 See Aquinas, Summa, III. Q. xlix. art. 1: "Fides autem, per quam a peccato mundatur, non est fides informis, quæ potest esse etiam cum peccato, sed est fides formata per charitatem, ut sic passio Christi nobis applicetur, non solum quantum ad intellectum, sed etiam quantum ad effectum. Et per hunc etiam modum peccata dimittuntur ex virtute passionis Christi." Cf. 1ma 2 Q. cxiii. art. 4; and see Neander, Church History, vol. viii. pp. 220, 221, and Moehler, Symbolism, p. 118. 2 Sess. VI. canon xi.

3 Commentary on Galatians, ii. 17.

IV. The Homily of Justification.

It only remains to say a word or two on the Homily of Justification, to which the Article refers us for fuller treatment of the subject. On turning to the Books of the Homilies, however, we find that there exists no homily with this title! That which is evidently referred to is the "Homily of Salvation," contained in the first book; together with which should be read the two following ones" Of the True and lively Faith" and "Of Good Works." In reading these the student is especially recommended to notice the emphatic way in which the writer insists (1) that faith alone has the office of justifying, (2) that good works are necessary, and (3) that faith has no merit any more than any other graces or good works. A few quotations shall be added by way of specimens.

"Faith doth not shut out repentance, hope, love, dread, and the fear of God, to be joined with faith in every man that is justified; but it shutteth them out from the office of justifying. So that, although they be all present together in him that is justified, yet they justify not all together. Nor that faith also doth not shut out the justice of our good works, necessarily to be done afterward of duty towards God (for we are most bounded to serve God in doing good deeds commanded by him in his holy Scripture all the days of our life); but it excludeth them so that we may not do them to this intent, to be made good by doing of them. For all the good works that we can do be imperfect, and therefore not able to deserve our justification; but our justification doth come freely, by the mere mercy of God; and of so great and free mercy that, whereas all the world was not able of theirselves to pay any part towards their ransom, it pleased our heavenly Father, of

his infinite mercy, without any our desert or deserving, to prepare for us the most precious jewels of Christ's body and blood, whereby our ransom might be fully paid, the law fulfilled, and his justice fully satisfied."

Again: "This sentence, that we be justified by faith only, is not so meant of them [namely, the ancient writers, Greek and Latin] 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 they mean not so to be justified without our good works that we should do no good works at all, like as shall be more expressed at large hereafter. But this saying, 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 unable to deserve our justification at God's hands; and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of man and the goodness 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 bloodshedding."

And once more: "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 deserve 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 faith, hope, charity, and all our other virtues and good deeds, which we either have done, shall do, or can do, as things that be far too weak and insufficient and imperfect to deserve remission of our sins and our justification; and therefore we must trust only in God's mercy, and in that sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour Christ Jesus, the Son of God, once offered for us upon the cross, to obtain thereby God's grace, and remission, as well of our original sin in baptism as of all actual sin committed by us after our baptism if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly to him again. So that, as S. John Baptist, although he were never so virtuous and godly a man, yet in this matter of forgiving of sin he did put the people from him, and appointed them unto Christ, saying thus unto them, Behold, yonder is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world; even so, as great and as godly a virtue the lively faith is, yet it putteth us from itself, and remitteth or appointeth us unto Christ, for to have only by him remission of our sins or justification. So that our faith

in Christ, as it were, saith unto us thus: It is not I that take away your sins, but it is Christ only; and to him only I send you for that purpose, forsaking therein. all your good virtues, words, thoughts, and works, and only putting your trust in Christ."