An antidote against error concerning justification, or, The true notion of justification, and of…An antidote against errour concerning justification, or, The true notion of justification, and of…

Thus the Fathers of that Tridentine Council or Conventicle rather, after many windings and turnings, and ambiguous passages, seem at length to pitch upon; when thus they conclude, Session 6. de Justificat. cap. 7. Unica Justificationis formalis caussa est Justitia Dei, non qa ipse justus est, sed qa nos justos facit, qa videlicet ab eo donati, renovamur spiritu mentis nostrae, & non solum reputamur, sed vere justi nominamur & sumus, &c. The only formal cause of Justification, is the Righteousness of God, not whereby he is righteous, but whereby he maketh us righteous, to wit, wherewith being by him endowed, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind, and become not reputed only, but are named and are indeed truly righteous, receiving righteousness each one in himself, according to that degree, which the Holy Ghost imparts to each at his pleasure. And Bellarmine therefore (whatsoever he or they seem to say elsewhere) de Justificat. lib. 2. cap 2. maintains this to be the meaning of the Council there, Formalem causam justificationis esse justitiam inherentem: That the formal cause of Justification is inherent righteousness. And hence Suarez entitleth his Books, wherein he debates the point of Justification, De Sanctificatione, Of Sanctification. Hence that distinction so rife with Popish writers, taken from that place of the Council of Trent before mentioned, and of which also Bellarmine de Justificat. l. 1. c. 1. concerning a first and a second Justification. Illa qa ex impio justus, ista qa ex justo justior fit. A first, whereby a man is of a bad man made good; a second, whereby he is of a good man made better. The former whereof they say is done by an infusion of grace inherent, the latter by exercise of such grace so infused. Which indeed are no other but two degrees of that which we usually, and more fitly, term Sanctification, the one the beginning, the other the growth and progress of it. 1 Pet, 1. 22, 23. and 2. 2 2 Pet. 3. 18.

Thus the Fathers of that Tridentine Councel or Conventicle rather, after many windings and turnings, and ambiguous passages, seem at length to pitch upon; when thus they conclude, Session 6. de Justificat. cap. 7. Vnica Justificationis formalis caussa est Justitia Dei, non qa ipse justus est, sed qa nos justos facit, qa videlicet ab eo donati, renovamur spiritu mentis nostrae, & non solum reputamur, sed vere justi nominamur & sumus, &c. The onlie formal cause of Justification, is the Righteousnes of God, not whereby he is righteous, but whereby he maketh us righteous, to wit, wherewith being by him endowed, we ar renewed in the spirit of our mind, and become not reputed onely, but ar named and ar indeed trulie righteous, receiving righteousnes each one in himself, according to that degree, which the Holie Ghost imparts to each at his pleasure. And Bellarmine therefore (whatsoever he or they seem to say elsewhere) de Justificat. lib. 2. cap 2. maintains this to be the meaning of the Councel there, Formalem causam justificationis esse justitiam inherentem: That the formal cause of Justification is inherent righteousness. And hence Suarez entituleth his Books, wherein he debates the point of Justification, De Sanctificatione, Of Sanctification. Hence that distinction so rife with Popish writers, taken from that place of the Councel of Trent before mentioned, and of which also Bellarmine de Justificat. l. 1. c. 1. concerning a first and a second Justification. Illa qa ex impio justus, ista qa ex justo justior fit. A first, whereby a man is of a bad man made good; a second, whereby he is of a good man made better. The former whereof they say is done by an infusion of grace inherent, the latter by exercise of such grace so infused. Which indeed are no other but two degrees of that which we usuallie, and more fitlie, term Sanctification, the one the beginning, the other the growth and progress of it. 1 Pet, 1. 22, 23. and 2. 2