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290 OF SALVATION.cal faith,* We are said to be "justified freely by hisgrace,^' says the Cliurch of Rome, inasmuch as the grace ofGod aids the sinner by these acts. She hokls, moreover,that these acts are meritorious. She does not hold thatthey possess the merit of condignlty^ as do the good worksof the justified man ; but she hokls that these acts of faithand love, which prepare and dispose the mind for justification,possess the merit of congruity^ that is, they merit adivine reward, not from any obligation of justice, but out ofa principle of fitness or congruity.The disposition for justification being thus wrought, thejustification itself follows. This satisfaction, say the fathersof Trent, " is not remission of sin merely, but alsosanctification, and the renovation of theinner man by thevoluntary reception of grace and of gifts, so that the man,from being unrighteous, is made righteous." The decreethen goes on to describe the cause of justification. Thefinal cause is the glory of God ; the efficient cause is themercy of God ; the meritorious cause is Jesus Christ, " whomerited justification for us by his most holy passion on thecross;" the instrumental cause is the "sacrament of baptism,which is the sacrament of faith," says the Council of Trent," without which no one can ever obtain justification." Theformal cause is the righteousness of God ;" not that bywhich he himself is righteous, but that by which he makesus righteous ; with which, to wit, being endued by him, weare renewed in the spirit of our mind, and are not onlyreputed righteous, but truly are called, and do becomerighteous, receiving righteousness in ourselves, each accordingto his measure."-f-Such is the doctrine of justification as taught by theChurch of Rome. It is diametrically opposed to themethod of justifying sinners described in the epistles of* Perrone's Prrelectiones Theologicjc, torn. i. p. 1415 : Tlieologia Mor.Ludovico Bailly, torn. v. p. 456.t Concil. Trid. sess. vi. cap. vii.