The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

2. Some say the Apostle only excludes the perfect Works required by the Law of Innocency, which is a sense diametrically opposite unto that foregoing. But this best pleaseth the Socinians. Paulus agit de Operibus & perfectis in hoc dicto ideo enim adjecit, sine operibus legis ut indicaretur loqui eum de operibus a lege requisitis, & sic de perpetua & perfectissima divinorum praeceptorum obedientia sicut lex requirit. Cum autem talem obedientiam qualem lex requirit nemo praestare possit, ideo subjecit Apostolus nos justificari fide, id est, fiducia & obedientia ea quantum quisque praestare potest, & quotidie quam maximum praestare studet, & connititur. Sine operibus legis, id est, etsi interim perfect totam legem sicut debebat complere nequit; saith Socinus himself. But (1.) We have herein the whole granted of what we plead for; namely, that it is the moral indispensable Law of God that is intended by the Apostle; and that by the works of it no man can be justified, yea, that all the works of it are excluded from our Justification; for it is, saith the Apostle, without Works. The works of this Law being performed according unto it, will justify them that perform them, as he affirms, Chap. 2.13. and the Scripture elsewhere witnesseth, that he that doth them, shall live in them. But because this can never be done by any Sinner, therefore all consideration of them is excluded from our Justification. ⟨p. 405⟩(2.) It is a wild Imagination that the dispute of the Apostle is to this purpose; that the perfect works of the Law will not justify us, but imperfect works, which answer not the Law, will do so. (3.) Granting the Law intended to be the Moral Law of God, the Law of our Creation, there is no such distinction intimated in the least by the Apostle, that we are not justified by the perfect Works of it which we cannot perform, but by some imperfect Works that we can perform, and labour so to do. Nothing is more foreign unto the design and express words of his whole discourse. (4.) The Evasion which they betake themselves unto, that the Apostle opposeth Justification by faith unto that of works which he excludes, is altogether vain in this sense. For they would have this faith to be our Obedience unto the Divine Commands in that imperfect manner which we can attain unto.

2. Some say the Apostle only excludes the perfect Works required by the Law of Innocency, which is a sense diametrically opposite unto that foregoing. But this best pleaseth the Socinians. Paulus agit de Operibus & perfectis in hoc dicto ideo enim adjecit, sine operibus legis ut indicaretur loqui eum de operibus a lege requisitis, & sic de perpetua & perfectissima divinorum praeceptorum obedientia sicut lex requirit. Cum autem talem obedientiam qualem lex requirit nemo praestare possit, ideo subjecit Apostolus nos justificari fide, id est, fiducia & obedientia ea quantum quisque praestare potest, & quotidie quam maximum praestare studet, & connititur. Sine operibus legis, id est, etsi interim perfecte totam legem sicut debebat complere nequit; saith Socinus himself. But (1.) We have herein the whole granted of what we plead for; namely, that it is the moral indispensible Law of God that is intended by the Apostle; and that by the works of it no man can be justified, yea, that all the works of it are excluded from our Justification; for it is, saith the Apostle, without Works. The works of this Law being performed according unto it, will justifie them that perform them, as he affirms, Chap. 2.13. and the Scripture elsewhere witnesseth, that he that doth them, shall live in them. But because this can never be done by any Sinner, therefore all consideration of them is excluded from our Justification.