A26974:339
Of justification four disputations clearing and amicably defending the truth against the unnecessary oppositions…
Of justification four disputations clearing and amicably defending the truth against the unnecessary oppositions of divers learned and reverend brethren / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1658
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Proposition 4. No man can be justified by works properly meritorious, because no man hath any such at all; nor may we once imagine that we have any such works as Paul speaks of (and the Jews thought they had) which make the reward to be not of Grace but of Debt, Rom. 4.4. much less that we are justified by such; even Gospel works and faith it self do not justify on this account, and a conceit that they are thus meritorious would but turn them into condemning sins.
Proposition 4. No man can be justified by works properly meritorious, because no man hath any such at all; nor may we once imagine that we have any such works as Paul speaks of (and the Jews thought they had) which make the reward to be not of Grace but of Debt, Rom. 4.4. much less that we are justified by such; even Gospel works and faith it self do not justifie on this account, and a conceit that they are thus meritorious would but turn them into condemning sins.
Proposition 5. No act of mans, no not faith it self can justify as an act or work, nor as This act in specie that is▪ the nearest and formal reason of its justifying Interest must not be fetched either from the General or special nature of the act it self: and therefore it is not faith as faith, that is, as it is an apprehension of Christ or recumbency on him, that Justifieth: nor yet as an Instrument thus acting. The nature of the act is but its aptitude to its office or justifying Interest, and not the formal cause of it.
Proposition 5. No act of mans, no not faith it self can justifie as an act or work, nor as This act in specie that is▪ the nearest and formal reason of its justifying Interest must not be fetcht either from the General or special nature of the act it self: and therefore it is not faith as faith, that is, as it is an apprehension of Christ or recumbency on him, that Justifyeth: nor yet as an Instrument thus acting. The nature of the act is but its aptitude to its office or justifying Interest, and not the formal cause of it.