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AND THEIR REFUTATION. 259
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith, that
worketh by charity" (Gal. v, 6) ; and hence St. Augustin (10)
says, that Faith may exist without charity,
but it availeth
nothing. Hence, when we find it said in the Scriptures, that
Faith saves us, we are to understand that living Faith, that is,
the Faith which saves us by good works, which are the vital
operations of Faith, for if these are wanting it is a sign that the
Faith is dead, and that which is dead cannot give life. Hence it
is that the Lutherans themselves, as Lomer, Gerard, the Doctors
of Strasbourg, and the greater part of the sect, as a certain
author states (11), forsaking the doctrine of their master, insist
on the necessity of good works for salvation. Bossuet(12) tells
us that the Lutherans of the University of Wittemberg in the
Confession they presented to the Council of Trent, said
good works ought of necessity be practised, and that they de
serve, by the gratuitous goodness of God, recompense
poral and spiritual."
27. The Council of Trent (Sess. vi, can. 19), says :
"
that
both cor
"
Si quis
dixerit, nihil praeceptum esse in Evangelic prseter fidem, cetera
esse indifferentia, neque prohibita, sed libera ; aut decem prge-
cepta nihil pertinere ad Christianos : anathema sit and ;"
20 :
"
in Can.
Si quis hominem justificatum, et quantumlibet perfectum,
dixerit non teneri ad observantiam mandatorum Dei, et Ecclesia?,
sed tantum ad credendum ; quasi vero Evangelium sit nuda, et
absoluta promissio vitae seternse, sine conditione observationis
mandatorum : anathema sit."
10) St. Aug. I. 15 de Trin. c. 18.
11) Pich. Theol. Pol. par. post. ar. 6.
(12) Bossuet. Variat. /. 8, n. 30 in fine.