Spiritual refining

Fourthly, The next rule is, That then in Scripture things are said to be, ¹when they are made manifest, and apparent. And this rule will open the sense of all that discourse in the Apostle James, where he disputeth it by several arguments, That we are justified by works. In so much that it hath much exercised the learned, how Paul and James are to be reconciled; For Paul, he expressly proveth that justification is without works; and that Abraham was justified by faith only: and James he saith, Abraham was not justified by faith only, but by works: Now two things reconcile these brethren that seem to differ. First Paul, He proveth that faith only justifieth; and James, That this faith which justifieth is not alone, separated from Good works. Paul proveth what it is that justifieth, Viz. Faith; and James, what kind of Faith, Viz. a working lively ⟨p. 304⟩faith. Paul argueth against a Pharisee that thought his works would justify him, and James against a Carnal Gospeller that thought faith alone, in the mere profession of it, was enough to save, without a godly life. And secondly, it may be thus composed; Paul speaks of the nature of justification in it self, and James of the manifestation of it. A thing in Scripture being said to be then done, when it is discovered to be so: And thus when you read in James in several places, That a man is justified by Good works, that is, he is manifested to be so. As the Apostles similitude evinceth, when he saith, As the body without the soul is dead, so is faith without works. Now as the body doth not give life to the soul, but fetcheth all from it, and doth outwardly declare what the soul doth; so doth a Godly life manifest and declare who are justified, and who not. So that it is in vain to pretend a good heart, where there is not a good life. And this is the reason why God in the Commandments requireth the outward work, because that doth demonstrate to the world the frame of the heart.

Fourthly, The next rule is, That then in Scripture things are said to be, ¹when they are made manifest, and apparent. And this rule will open the sense of all that discourse in the Apostle James, where he disputeth it by several arguments, That we are justified by works. In so much that it hath much exercised the learned, how Paul and James are to be reconciled; For Paul, he expresly proveth that justification is without works; and that Abraham was justified by faith onely: and James he saith, Abraham was not justified by faith onely, but by works: Now two things reconcile these brethren that seem to differ. First Paul, He proveth that faith onely justifieth; and James, That this faith which justifieth is not alone, separated from Good works. Paul proveth what it is that justifieth, Uiz. Faith; and James, what kinde of Faith, Uiz. a working lively