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AND THEIR REFUTATION. 265
clothing ourselves with Jesus Christ, we should renew ourselves
internally in spirit with intrinsic and inherent justice,
as Calvin
himself admitted ; for, otherwise, remaining sinners, we could not
"
renew ourselves. He : says Put on the new man," because, as
a garment is not properly a thing belonging to the body itself,
or part of it, so grace or justice does not properly belong to the
sinner, but is gratuitously given to him by the mercy of God
alone. The Apostle says in another place :
" Put
on bowels of
mercy" (Col. iii, 13). Now, as in this passage he does not speak
of extrinsic and apparent mercy, but of that which is real and
intrinsic, so when he : says
" Put on the new man," he means
that we should strip ourselves of the old vicious and graceless
man, and put on the new man enriched not with the imputative
justice of Jesus Christ, but with intrinsic justice belonging to
ourselves, though given us through the merits of Jesus Christ.
v.
FAITH ALONE CANNOT RENDER US SECURE OF JUSTICE, OR PERSEVERANCE,
OR ETERNAL LIFE.
37. It was one of Luther s doctrines, in which he was closely
followed by Calvin, that man, after being once justified by Faith,
should no longer have either fear or doubt, but that all his sins
were forgiven him, and hence he "Believe says(l): firmly that you
are absolved, and you will be so, no matter what contrition you
and he props up this opinion by a text of St. Paul :
may have ;"
"
Try your ownselves if you be in the faith : prove ye yourselves.
Know you not your ownselves, that Christ Jesus is in you, unless
perhaps you be reprobated ?"
Luther deduces that a man may be certain of his Faith, and
(II. Cor. xiii, 6). From this text
hence he concludes, that being certain of his Faith, he is also
certain of the remission of sins. But what sort of conclusion is
this ? A man is certain of his Faith ; but when he knows, at
the same time, that he is a sinner, how can he be certain of
(1) Luther, Serm. de Indulg. t. 1, p. 59.