supported from ancient testimony. 19 II. formatam. ing, that faith is perfected and formed (receives its character) STRIC. through love thus far, viz. :-that without love it is of no avail or profit to a man's justification and salvation, which is all we mean when we say that faith is 'perfected by love,' charitate as I have before told you. But how plain is this from St. Paul's words! The old interpreters, Greek as well as Latin, remarked on this passage, (and the remark is obvious enough,) that as St. Paul restricts the faith in Christ Jesus that is of any avail, by adding, 'which is perfected by love,' he plainly intimates that there is no faith which, without love in Christ Jesus, that is, according to the Gospel covenant, is of any avail to a man's justification and salvation; but that 'faith perfected by love' (as the great Apostle speaks) is every thing in Christianity, or is all that the Gospel demands. The famous passage of Ignatius, a disciple of the Apostles, ad Eph.14. and a partaker of their mysteries, which I have prefixed to P. 15. my Harmony, would supply the place of a commentary (were there need of one) on these words of the Apostle. "Ye miss of nothing if ye have perfectly toward Christ Jesus faith and love, which are the beginning and end of life; faith the beginning, love the end. But the two being in union are of God, and every thing else toward good living follows them." The meaning of these words, which briefly and clearly express the whole of the doctrine which I defend, is plain: The beginning of Gospel righteousness is faith: the completion of it is love these two united render a man in Christ Jesus, i. e. according to the Gospel covenant, réλelov, 'perfect,' i. e. accepted by God unto eternal salvation. Every thing else, which any way appertains to a holy life and the practice of good works, necessarily follows and depends upon and flows from these. This is taught elsewhere most clearly by the same Apostle. Though I have all faith and have not 1 Cor.13.2. charity, I am nothing;" to wit, as the form gives the being in natural things, so love gives faith a being in its acceptance with God; and accordingly a man, whatever be his faith, if he be without love, is as though he existed not as regards justification and salvation. We have vindicated the passage from some frivolous objections at great length II. Diss. iv. 6. p. 59. : § 5. Your last assertion, that love is no more the form of 'faith' than of 'hope,' or 'the fear of God,' or 'repentance,' 20 Love the 'form' of every virtue, STRIC. is, for once, a true one. II. Doubtless love is the form of all the other virtues in the same way as it is of faith; inasmuch as there is no virtue which is not perfected and informed by love, so far as that thus it becomes accepted by God, and available I. Diss. vi. towards a man's salvation. Hence in my Dissertations I 8. p. 37. said, "If there be any universal virtue, which fills, as it were, all the rest with goodness, and gives them their value and importance, that certainly is charity, the true love of God and our neighbour, from which whatever arises, will at last II. Diss. ii. be grateful and pleasing to God." Elsewhere I say "that 7. p. 53. love is that virtue, which in the matter of salvation, God chiefly regards, and which only, according to the gracious covenant of God, attracts salvation by a necessary connection." At this you raise a monstrous cry, you declare "your mind was horrified, as you read this new doctrine." But as I have already remarked, any thing is new to you which you have not met with in your systematizers. The doctrine which you call 'new,' and at which you are so dreadfully horrified, is St. Augustine's and Prosper's opinion. In the book of Sentences, extracted from the works of St. Augustine by Prosper, the seventh is this: "The love of God and our neighbour is the peculiar and special virtue of pious and holy men, since all the other virtues may be shared by bad as well as good men." If there is no virtue but love, in which bad men have share with holy men, it is plain that love is that virtue, which God especially regards in the matter of salvation &c. Moreover, if faith itself be imperfect by itself, and is of no avail to man's salvation unless d' áɣáπns évepYouμévn perfected by love, (which has been already clearly proved,) it is evident how much more this may be affirmed of all the other virtues; and therefore what St. Paul says of 1 Cor. 13.3. faith, that without love it profiteth nothing,' he extends to the other virtues also, not only to knowledge and prophecy, inter Op. August. vol. x. Append. p. 223. but also to alms-giving and even martyrdom. That the Apostle had this in view, when, after the enumeration of σúvdeoμov various virtues, he bids the Colossians "above all things to τῆς τελει ότητος. put on love or charity which is the bond of perfectness," has Col. 3. 14. been well observed by Isidorus Clarius, who writes thus on the passage: "Love," says he, "is nothing else than that which collecteth all good things into one; for it is that which makes the form of hope, and the fear of God. 21 ", 35 to 40 every thing else to be good." How plainly does the Apostle STRIC. II. say this in Rom. xiii. 10, and Gal. v. 14, where he calls 'love πλήρωμα the fulfilling of the law!' Hence it is most evident that love To vóμov. is (as we have said) an universal virtue which answers to every Divine commandment, and without which no commandment of God can be rightly observed. The Apostle speaks indeed directly in those passages of love to one's neighbour; but the love of God is included in the love of one's neighbour, as cause in the effect: and as the love of one's neighbour fulfils all the commands relative to our neighbour; so the love of God fulfils all the commands relative to God Himself. Lastly, Christ Himself has most clearly determined the point of this controversy, (and would that poor miserable men could give us leave to hear His voice, and abide by His decision!) when He said in express words, that "on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets," viz.: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Mat. 22. heart &c.," and, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' inclus. If, however, any one after so clear arguments have any doubt on the subject, may I ask him seriously and thoughtfully to follow me through each virtue mentioned by you, 'hope, the fear of God, and repentance,' and he will see that there is not one of these which does not stand in need of love, for its perfection and form, so far as it is to be accepted with God. Let us begin with 'hope.' This virtue, as distinguished from faith, involves in its very idea the notion of love; its difference from faith consisting in this, that the former is carried on by desire towards the object, which the latter apprehends by a bare assent; and this desire is charity or love. This may be more fully shewn thus: As we hope for nothing which we do not know and believe, and knowledge therefore and faith (or belief) must precede hope; so we hope for nothing which we do not love, as St. Augustine Enchir. testifies and our own reason confirms. Whence it similarly follows that love precedes hope, and a love by which God is 198. preferred before all things. For as hope is not without love, so the hope of the highest good, as such, (which alone avails to salvation, and of which alone we are now speaking,) cannot be without love of the highest good, as such, i. e. above all things; and this is Christian love. As regards the fear of c. 8. vol. vi. p. 22 Love the 'form' of repentance. STRIC. God,' it is evident the fear of God without the love of Him II. is the fear of a 'servant' not of a 'son;' but filial fear, which alone is available to salvation, and which is called by the amicalis. schoolmen by other names, 'holy, chaste, ingenuous, friendlike, reverential,' is that from which a man fears to offend God, and through the offence to be separated from God, as his greatest Good. This fear makes a man abstain from sin, not from the fear of hell only, but also from the love of virtue and justice. This fear not only keeps a restraint upon the hand, but is lord also of the heart. On the other hand, servile fear keeps the hand indeed from the perpetration of the evil, but in no way corrects the desire to sin. Lastly, of the third virtue you mentioned, 'repentance,' it is equally evident. Repentance strictly taken as here, and distinct from all other virtues, is grief for the commission of sins. But this grief without love is only attrition,' (attritio, as the schoolmen say,) not 'contrition,' (contritio,) and so does not avail to salvation. Contrition,' or true sorrow for sins, is that from which a man grieves for his sin, not only because of the punishment due to him on account thereof, but also because it is an offence against God, (God, I say, the highest Good.) And therefore a sincere hatred of sin accompanies this grief, as also a true love of God and righteousness: whence St. Augustine saith "nothing but the hatred of de Tem- sin and the love of God makes a sure repentance." Serm. 7. pore. § 7. From all these things, you will at length, I hope, understand, that I have not used the phrase fides formata, 'perfected faith,' or said that 'faith was perfected by love,' without good reason. If, however, you still object to these phrases, we will for the future, in argument with you, use only St. Paul's phrase, πíστis di' åɣáπns évepyovμévn, or St. James's πίστις ἐξ ἔργων τελειωθεῖσα, for I take no delight in empty disputes about words. STRICTURE III. ON I. DISS. i. 5. p. 8. I here contend, in opposition to Grotius' opinion, for the true meaning of the word Sikaloûv as it is used in the Scriptures in this question, using this argument: "The word Force of the word 'justification.' 23 III. δικαιοσύ την λογίζεσθαι, εἰς δικαιοσύ την λογί 'justify,' both in St. Paul and St. James, has exactly the STRIC. same force as, 'to reckon a reward,' 'to impute righteous- δικαιοῦν. ness,' and 'to impute for righteousness.' Now it is well μισθὸν λοunderstood that imputation denotes the act of God re-viseσbai, garding a man as just, not making him just; and this Grotius neither can nor will deny." Your remarks upon these words are as follows. "The learned man has well laid down, and proved satisfactorily, that justification is the Serea. accounting of a man righteous who is righteous otherwise than by the mere decision of the judge; God justifies him τòv àσ€ßîn. who is unrighteous, but yet who is partaker of Christ's righteousness through faith. He makes, however, a strange Rom. 4. 5. mistake in confounding justification with reward; neither does he weigh St. Paul's words very accurately when he says that μισθὸν λογίζεσθαι and δικαιοσύνην λογίζεσθαι have the same force in his Epistles. St. Paul says that 'to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned of grace but of debt: but to him that worketh not, but believeth, his faith is Rom. 4. counted for righteousness.' Examine well and see if St. Paul 4, 5. any where says that reward is reckoned to him that believeth, and whether the passage of David can allow that reward is reckoned to him whose faith is counted for righteousness ver. 6. without works." ANSWER TO STRICTURE III. What you mean in the first part of your remark, I do not exactly understand, nor does it much matter whether I understand it or not; for whatever it is that you there say, you express your agreement with and approval of what I have asserted, and therefore the only thing that I thought required consideration was your remark that follows, "that I have made a strange mistake in confounding justification with reward." Surely you are here yourself making a mistake. I am not confounding justification with ‘reward,' but with 'the imputation or adjudgment of reward,' on the plain authority of St. Paul. But neither do you agree to this; more than ten times in other parts of your animadversions you complain of my not having sufficiently distinguished وو |