Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875 edition. Excerpt: ... LESSON VI. OF SIN AND THE PARDON OF SIN--CONTINUED. ARTICLE XII. Of Good Works. LBBIT that Good "Works, which are the fruits of Faith, and follow after Justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's Judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith; insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree dis= cerned by the fruit. Notes.--Follow after justification. The word "follow" is intended to be emphatic. St. Augustine and Luther denied that good works could precede justification. "Good works," Augustine taught, "follow upon justification, and do not precede in order to justification" De Fide et Operibus, c. 14). This will appear in the next Article. Cannot put away our sins. They are in no sense meritorious. "We are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do" (Luke xvii. 10). "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves" (1 John i. 8). Pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ: not meritorious in themselves, but nevertheless pleasing to God in Christ. Pleasing to God when offered through the mediation of our High Priest: we are to offer." spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. ii. 5). "Do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus" (Col. iii. 17). Again and again, in parable and precept, our Lord tells us that God will reward every man according to his works (Matt. xvi. 27); but is God bound to reward him by virtue of the merit of those works? No: "With Thee, O Lord, is mercy, for Thou rewardest every one according to his work" (Ps. lxii. 12). The works constitute no claim, although God of His mercy and free grace chooses to reward us according to them. It is entirely for...
