Institutes of the Christian Religion (Vol. 2 of 2)
XIII. Nor can they derive the least support from a similar
passage which they cite from Paul, that “Not the hearers of the
law, but the doers of the law, shall be justified.”[162]
I have no
wish to evade it by the explanation of Ambrose, that this is
spoken, because faith in Christ is the fulfilling of the law. For
this I conceive to be a mere subterfuge, which is totally unnecessary.
The apostle in that place is demolishing the foolish
confidence of the Jews, who boasted of possessing the exclusive
knowledge of the law, whilst at the same time they were the
greatest despisers of it. To prevent such great self-complacence
on account of a mere acquaintance with the law, he admonishes
them, that if righteousness be sought by the law, it is requisite
not only to know but to observe it. We certainly do not
question that the righteousness of the law consists in works,
nor that this righteousness consists in the worthiness and
merit of works. But still it cannot be proved that we are
justified by works, unless some person be produced who has
fulfilled the law. That Paul had no other meaning, is
sufficiently evident from the context. After having condemned
the Gentiles and Jews indiscriminately for unrighteousness,
he proceeds particularly to inform us, that “as many
as have sinned without law shall also perish without law;”
which refers to the Gentiles; and that “as many as have
sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;” which belongs
to the Jews. Moreover, because they shut their eyes against
their transgressions, and gloried in their mere possession of the
law, he adds, what is exceedingly applicable, that the law was
not given that men might be justified merely by hearing its
voice, but by obeying it; as though he had said, Do you seek
righteousness by the law? Plead not your having heard it, which
of itself is a very small advantage, but produce works as an evidence
that the law has not been given to you in vain. Since
in this respect they were all deficient, they were consequently
deprived of their glorying in the law. The meaning of Paul,
therefore, rather furnishes an opposite argument: Legal righteousness
consists in perfect works; no man can boast of having
satisfied the law by his works; therefore there is no righteousness
by the law.
XIV. Our adversaries proceed to adduce those passages in
which the faithful boldly offer their righteousness to the examination
of Divine justice, and desire to be judged according
to it. Such are the following: “Judge me, O Lord, according
to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in
me.”[163]
Again: “Hear the right, O Lord. Thou hast proved
mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried
me, and shalt find nothing.”[164]
Again: “I have kept the ways
of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. I
was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine
iniquity. Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according
to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands.”[165]
Again: “Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity.
I have not sat with vain persons; neither will I go in
with dissemblers. Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my
life with bloody men; in whose hands is mischief, and their
right hand is full of bribes. But as for me, I will walk in mine
integrity.”[166]
I have already spoken of the confidence which
the saints appear to derive from their works. The passages
now adduced will form no objection to our doctrine, when they
are explained according to the occasion of them. Now, this is
twofold. For believers who have expressed themselves in
this manner, have no wish to submit to a general examination,
to be condemned or absolved according to the whole tenor of
their lives, but they bring forward a particular cause to be
judged; and they attribute righteousness to themselves, not
with reference to the Divine perfection, but in comparison
with men of impious and abandoned characters. In the
first place, in order to a man’s being justified, it is requisite
that he should have, not only a good cause in some particular
instance, but a perpetual consistency of righteousness through
life. But the saints, when they implore the judgment of God
in approbation of their innocence, do not present themselves as
free from every charge, and absolutely guiltless; but having
fixed their dependence on his goodness alone, and confiding
in his readiness to avenge the poor who are unlawfully and
unjustly afflicted, they supplicate his regard to the cause in
which the innocent are oppressed. But when they place themselves
and their adversaries before the Divine tribunal, they
boast not an innocence, which, on a severe examination, would
be found correspondent to the purity of God; but knowing
that their sincerity, justice, simplicity, and purity, are pleasing
and acceptable to God, in comparison with the malice, wickedness,
fraud, and iniquity of their enemies, they are not afraid to
invoke Him to judge between them. Thus, when David said
to Saul, “The Lord render to every man his righteousness and
his faithfulness”[167]
he did not mean that the Lord should examine
every individual by himself, and reward him according
to his merits; but he called the Lord to witness the greatness
of his innocence in comparison with the iniquity of Saul. Nor
did Paul, when he gloried in having “the testimony of” his
“conscience” that he had conducted himself in the Church
“with simplicity and godly sincerity,”[168]
intend to rely on this
before God; but the calumnies of the impious constrained him
to oppose all their slanderous aspersions by asserting his fidelity
and probity, which he knew to be acceptable to the Divine goodness.
For we know what he says in another place: “I am conscious
to myself of nothing; yet am I not hereby justified.”[169]
Because, indeed, he was certain, that the judgment of God far
transcended the narrow comprehension of man. However,
therefore, the pious may vindicate their innocence against the
hypocrisy of the impious, by invoking God to be their witness
and judge, yet in their concerns with God alone, they all with
one voice exclaim, “If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O
Lord, who shall stand?”[170]
Again: “Enter not into judgment
with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be
justified.”[171]
And, diffident of their own works, they gladly
sing, “Thy loving-kindness is better than life.”[172]
XV. There are likewise other passages, similar to the preceding,
on which some person may yet insist. Solomon says,
“The just man walketh in his integrity.”[173]
Again: “In the
way of righteousness there is life; and in the pathway thereof
there is no death.”[174]
Thus also Ezekiel declares, that he who
“doth that which is lawful and right, shall surely live.”[175]
We neither deny nor obscure any of these. But let one of the
sons of Adam produce such an integrity. If no one can, they
must either perish from the presence of God, or flee to the
asylum of mercy. Nor do we deny, that to believers their
integrity, however imperfect, is a step toward immortality.
But what is the cause of this, unless it be that when the Lord
has admitted any persons into the covenant of his grace, he
does not scrutinize their works according to their intrinsic
merit, but embraces them with paternal benignity? By this
we mean, not merely what is taught by the schoolmen, “that
works receive their value from the grace which accepts them;”
for they suppose, that works, otherwise inadequate to the attainment
of salvation by the legal covenant, are rendered sufficient
for this by the Divine acceptance of them. But I assert,
that they are so defiled, both by other transgressions and by
their own blemishes, that they are of no value at all, except as
the Lord pardons both; and this is no other than bestowing
on a man gratuitous righteousness. It is irrelevant to this
subject, to allege those prayers of the apostle, in which he
desires such perfection for believers, that they may be unblamable
and irreprovable in the day of Christ.[176]
These
passages, indeed, the Celestines formerly perverted, in order to
prove a perfection of righteousness in the present life. We
think it sufficient briefly to reply, with Augustine, “that all
the pious ought, indeed, to aspire to this object, to appear one
day immaculate and guiltless before the presence of God; but
since the highest excellency in this life is nothing more than
a progress towards perfection, we shall never attain it, till,
being divested at once of mortality and sin, we shall fully
adhere to the Lord.” Nevertheless, I shall not pertinaciously
contend with any person who chooses to attribute to the saints
the character of perfection, provided he also defines it in the
words of Augustine himself; who says, “When we denominate
the virtue of the saints perfect, to this perfection itself
belongs the acknowledgment of imperfection, both in truth
and in humility.”
