Chapter V: Meritorious Satisfaction

FROM the perfect equality of Unwritten Tradition and the Written Word of God, we may next proceed to the doctrine of Meritorious Satisfaction.

I. The Church of Rome lays down her decision, respecting what she calls _Works of Satisfaction_, in manner following.

_So great is the abundance of divine munificence_, _that we are able to make satisfaction to God the Father through Jesus Christ_, _not only by punishments __either spontaneously undergone by ourselves for the avenging of sin or imposed upon us by the will of the priest according to the measure of our offence_, _but also_ (_what is the greatest argument of love_) _by temporal flagellations inflicted of God and by us patiently endured_. {40a}

II. Thus speaks the Roman Church: let us now hear the declarations of Holy Scripture.

1. _When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you_, _say_: _We are unprofitable servants_; _we have done that which it was our duty to do_. {40b}

2. _Two men went up into the temple to pray_: _the one_, _a Pharisee_; _and the other_, _a Publican_. _The Pharisee stood_, _and prayed thus with himself_: _God_, _I thank thee_, _that I am not as other men are_, _extortioners_, _unjust_, _adulterers_, _or even as this Publican_. _I fast twice in the week_: _I give tythes of all that I possess_. _And the Publican_, _standing afar off_, _would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven_; _but smote upon his breast_, _saying_: _God be merciful to me a sinner_! _I tell you_: _This man went down to his house justified rather than the other_: _for every one_, _that exalteth himself_, _shall be abased_; _and he_, _that humbleth himself_, _shall be exalted_. {40c}

3. _Where is boasting then_? _It is excluded_. _By what law_? _Of works_? _Nay_, _but by the law of faith_. _Therefore we conclude_: _that a man is justified by faith_, _without the deeds of the law_. {40d}

4. _If Abraham were justified by works_, _he hath whereof to glory_, _but not before God_. _For what saith the Scripture_? _Abraham believed God_: _and it was counted unto him for righteousness_. _Now_, _to him that worketh_, _is the reward reckoned_, _not of grace_, _but of debt_. _But_, _to him that worketh not_, _but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly_, _his faith is counted for righteousness_. {40e}

5. _Therefore_, _being justified by faith_, _we have peace with God_, _through our Lord Jesus Christ_. {41a}

6. _They_, _being ignorant of God’s righteousness_, _and going about to establish their own righteousness_, _have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God_. {41b}

7. _We are all as an unclean thing_: _and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags_. {41c}

III. Let us next attend to the language of the old orthodox Fathers.

1. Clement of Rome, in the first century, speaks as follows.

All, therefore, have been glorified and magnified, not through themselves or through their own works of righteousness which they have done, but through the will of God. Wherefore, being called through his will in Christ Jesus, we are justified, not through ourselves, or through our own wisdom or intellect or piety, or through the works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but through faith, by which the Almighty God has justified us all from everlasting. {41d}

2. The author of the Epistle to Diognetus, in the first or second century, speaks exactly to the same purpose.

What else can cover our sins, than the righteousness of Christ? In what can we lawless and impious wretches be justified, save only in the Son of God? {41e}

3. Ambrose of Milan, in the fourth century, still holds the same language.

(1.) By what labours, by what injuries, can we lighten our sins? The sufferings of this time are, in reference to future glory, altogether unworthy. Hence, toward man, the form of celestial decrees proceeds, not according to our merits, but according to the mercy of God. {42a}

(2.) Would that the Lord would not reject, but collect, this my mere stubble in the harvest, these empty wild oats of my fructification!—It is fitting, therefore, to believe; both that penance is to be performed, and that pardon is to be granted: nevertheless, in such manner, that we should hope for pardon, as from faith, not as from debt. {42b}

4. Augustine, in the fourth and fifth centuries, exactly agrees with his predecessors.

The sins are thine: the merits are God’s. To thee punishment is due: and when the reward shall come, he will crown his own gifts, not thy merits. {42c}

IV. Let the patient enquirer now judge for himself: whether the romish doctrine, that _Punishments_, _either self-inflicted_, _or commanded by a priest_, _or sent in the course of God’s providence_, _can make satisfaction to the Father through Christ in our behalf_, be the doctrine either of Scripture or of the early Church.

V. But, if no man can make satisfaction for _his own_ sins: still less, according to the monstrous phantasy of Supererogation, can he make satisfaction for the sins of _others_.

Yet this impious absurdity was openly advanced in the papal bull for the observation of a jubilee is the recent year 1825.

_We have resolved_, says Pope Leo, BY VIRTUE OF THE AUTHORITY GIVEN TO US FROM HEAVEN, _fully to unlock that sacred treasure_, _composed of the merits_, _sufferings_, _and virtues_, _of Christ our Lord and of his Virgin-Mother and of all the Saints_, WHICH THE AUTHOR OF HUMAN SALVATION HAS ENTRUSTED TO OUR DISPENSATION.—_To you_, _therefore_, _venerable brethren_, _Patriarchs_, _Primates_, _Archbishops_, _Bishops_, _it belongs to explain with perspicuity the power of Indulgences_: _what is their efficacy in the remission_, _not only of the canonical penance_, _but also of the temporal punishment due to the divine justice for past sin_; _and what succour is afforded_, _out of this heavenly treasure_, _from the merits of Christ and his Saints_, _to such as have departed real penitents in God’s love_, _yet before they had duly satisfied by fruits worthy of penance for sins of commission and omission_, _and are now purifying in the fire of Purgatory_, _that an entrance may be opened for them into their eternal country where nothing defiled is admitted_.

1. Where is Pope Leo’s PROOF of the validity of his claim to _an authority given to him from heaven_: _by virtue of which authority he fully unlocks a sacred treasure_, _composed of the merits of Christ and the Virgin Mary and all the Saints_, _and entrusted by the blessed author of our salvation to the wisdom of his doling out_?

Let such PROOF be produced, if the Romish Clergy _can_ produce it, either from the Bible, or even from the received doctrine of the primitive Church Catholic.

2. By what evidence does Pope Leo SUBSTANTIATE his assertion: that _Souls in Purgatory are benefited by the supererogatory merits of the Virgin Mary and the Saints strangely associated with the all-sufficient merits of the Redeemer_?

Let the Romish Clergy, if they be _able_, SUBSTANTIATE this most extraordinary allegation.

3. Where is Pope Leo’s PROOF of the very position, upon which the whole of his bull professedly reposes; the position, to wit: that _The Virgin Mary and the Saints not only have merit enough to make satisfaction for their own sins_, _but have even merit to spare for the benefit of less privileged souls in Purgatory_?

From the Bible or from the Doctors of the primitive Church, let his venerable brethren, Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops, bring forward, if they can accomplish such a feat, the PROOF of this very remarkable position.