The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

PROTESTANT AND POPISH JUSTIFICATION. 201Paul, and more especially in his Epistle to the Romans.is diametrically opposed to the doctrine of the reformers,and to the confessions of all the reformed Churches. Allsound Protestant divines receive the term " justification" ina forensic sense. Nothing is changed It/ justification viewedin itself but the man's state, which, from being that of acriminal in the eye of the law, and obnoxious todeath, becomesthat of an innocent man, entitled to eternal life.ItThesource of justification they regard as being the grace ofGod ; its meritorious cause, the righteousness of Christ imputedto the sinner ; and its instrumental cause, faith, bywhich the sinnerreceives the righteousness which the gospeloffers. Thus nothing is seen in this great work but thegrace of God. To Him is all the glory. The sinner comesinto the possession of profound peace, because he feelsthathe is resting, not on his own good (jualities, but on therighteousness of the Saviour, which " has magnified the lawand made it honourable ;""and he abounds in works of righteousness,being now become " dead unto the law,but aliveunto God ;" and these good fi'uits are at once the proofs ofhis justification and the pledges of his glory. But all thisis reversed according to the Romish method. It is clear,according to the Church of Rome, that the ground of a sinner''sjustification is not without him, but within him. Heis justified, not because Christ has satisfied the law in hisroom, but because the man himself has become such as thelaw requires ; or, as Romish divines are accustomed to say,i\i(i formal cause of justification is inherent ov infused righteousness.The death of Christ has to do with our justificationonly in so far as it has merited the infusion of thosegood dispositions which are the formal cause of our justification,*and whereby we perform those good works which aremeritorious of an increase of grace and eternal life. And,as regards faith, " we are not," says Bailly, " justified byfaith alone ;"and its admitted connection with justification* See Concil. Trid. sess. vi. canons, 10-12.