“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…”

Jn. 3:3

“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

1 Cor. 6:11

“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.”

Acts 26:18

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Subsections

Regeneration
What Respects the Covenant of Grace is Conditional
Relation of Repentance to Faith & Justification
Repentance is Beginning of Sanctification
Justification without Any Meritorious Works
Faith: Condition of Justification
Justifying Faith: Never Alone

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Order of

Bible Verses  10+
Westminster
Articles  4+
Quotes  22+

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Bible Verses

See also ‘Bible Verses on the Relation of Repentance to Saving Faith & Justification’.

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Mt. 5:8  “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”

Mt. 18:3 “Verily, I say unto you, Unless ye be converted and become like children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”

John 1:12  “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”

Jn. 3:3, 5  “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…  Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

Rom. 8:30  “Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also [effectually] called: and whom He [effectually] called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.”

[The effectual call encompasses regeneration, repentance and the giving of faith (which things constitute inherent holiness).  Those persons are justified by faith.  See Pemble and others below.]

Acts 15:9  “…purifying their hearts by faith.”

Acts 26:18  “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.”

1 Cor. 6:11  “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

2 Thess. 2:13  “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:”

Tit. 3:5-7  “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Heb. 12:14  “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:”

James 4:8  “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.”

1 Jn. 1:6-7  “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

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Westminster

Larger Catechism

Q. 73. How doth faith justify a sinner in the sight of God?

A. Faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God, not because of those other graces which do always accompany it, or of good works that are the fruits of it,[q] nor as if the grace of faith, or any act thereof; were imputed to him for his justification;[r] but only as it is an instrument by which he receiveth and applieth Christ and his righteousness.[s]

[q] Gal. 3:11. Rom. 3:28.
[r] Rom. 4:5 compared with Rom. 10:10.
[s] John 1:12. Phil. 3:9. Gal. 2:16

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Q. 75. What is sanctification?

A. Sanctification is a work of God’s grace, whereby they whom God hath, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy, are in time, through the powerful operation of his Spirit[b] applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them,[c] renewed in their whole man after the image of God;[d] having the seeds of repentance unto life, and all other saving graces, put into their hearts,[e] and those graces so stirred up, increased, and strengthened,[f] as that they more and more die unto sin, and rise unto newness of life.[g]

[b] Eph. 1:4. 1 Cor. 6:11. 2 Thess. 2:13.
[c] Rom. 6:4-6.
[d] Eph. 4:23,24.
[e] Acts 11:18. 1 John 3:9.
[f] Jude 20. Heb. 6:11,12. Eph. 3:16-19. Col. 1:10,11.
[g] Rom. 6:4,6,14. Gal. 5:24.

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Q. 153. What doth God require of us, that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us by reason of the transgression of the law?

A. That we may escape the wrath and curse of God due to us by reason of the transgression of the law, he requireth of us repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,[i] and the diligent use of the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of his mediation.[k]

[i] Acts 20:21. Matt. 3:7,8. Luke 13:3,5. Acts 16:30,31. John 3:16,18.
[k] Prov. 2:1-5. Prov. 8:33-36.

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Confession of Faith

ch. 15

“I. Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace^a… 

a. Zec 12:10; Acts 11:18

II. By it a sinner…  upon the apprehension of his mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, so grieves for and hates his sins as to turn from them all unto God,a purposing and endeavoring to walk with him in all the ways of his commandments.b

a. Ps 51:4; 119:128; Isa 30:22; Jer 31:18-19; Ezek 18:30-31; 36:31; Joel 2:12-13; Amos 5:15; 2 Cor 7:11
b. 2 Kings 23:25; Psa 119:6, 59, 106; Luke 1:6

III. Although repentance be not to be rested in as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof,a which is the act of God’s free grace in Christ;b yet is it of such necessity to all sinners that none may expect pardon without it.c

a. Eze 16:61-63; 36:31-32
b. Hos 14:2, 4; Rom 3:24; Eph 1:7
c. Luke 13:3, 5; Acts 17:30-31“

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Articles

1600’s

Davenant, John – section 5  in ch. 31, ‘Of the Necessity of Works to Salvation, or Justification’  in A Treatise on Justification: or The Disputatio de justitia habituali et actuali…, vol. 1  trans. Josiah Allport  (d. 1641; London: Hamilton, 1844/1846), pp. 299-300

Note that what Davenant says here is substantially the same as what Owen says below, with a bit of difference of some terminology.  Davenant would have done better to, instead of using the term “good works” in this context, to use “a certain inherent righteousness,” similar to Goodwin below.

Davenant here denies that works are efficient or meritorious causes of justification.  Yet he affirms that certain inward works, or a certain inherent righteousness, is necessary as concurrent or preliminary conditions to justification, which accompany it, by way of order, not of causality; and these things “He Himself effects in us.”

These inward works he specifies as (1) mourning over sin, (2) hoping in the Mediator, (3) to resolve on a new life, (4) “and other such like things.”  Yet the first three of these things are simply the definition of repentance and the fourth can be understood of things that flow out of repentance in a particular person’s experience and life in an appropriate, saving response to the call of the Gospel.  Davenant gives as a reason:

“For the divine mercy does not justify dead stocks, that is those doing nothing; nor horses and mules, that is, rebellious and untractable sinners, obstinately cleaving to their own lusts; but men, and those too full of compunction and contrition, and following the leadings of the Word and the Divine Spirit.”

Ball, John – 2nd pt., ch. 5, p. 349  of A Treatise of the Covenant of Grace  (London, 1645)

“And here the doubt touching the precedency of faith and repentance may be easily determined.  For if faith be taken largely or generally for a belief of the promise, if we repent and receive it, then faith is before repentance: for there can be no turning without hope of pardon, nor coming home by hearty sorrow, without some expectation of mercy [see WCF 15.2 & WSC 87].  Thus the exhortations run, ‘Turn unto the Lord, for He is merciful and gracious.’  ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.’

But if faith be taken more strictly, for that faith or belief whereby we receive, embrace, or rest upon the promise of God in Christ Jesus for pardon and forgiveness, then repentance goes before pardon: for no remission is promised to be enjoyed but upon condition of repentance…

If repentance be necessary to justification, of necessity it must go before justifying faith; because faith and justification are immediately coupled together.  It is impossible to come unto Christ without repentance…  Coming unto Christ is a lively motion of the soul, wherein arising from sin, it draws nigh or approaches unto Christ, that in Him it might be satisfied.  The motion is one, but the points are two.  For in drawing nigh unto Christ, the soul arises from sin: which may be called repentance.”

Witsius, Herman – ch. 11, ‘Whether Repentance Precedes the Remission of Sins?’ [Yes]  in Conciliatory or Irenical Animadversions on the Controversies Agitated in Britain: under the Unhappy names of Antinomians and Neonomians  (Glasgow, 1807), pp. 119-21

Witsius speaks of repentance as a ‘disposing condition’ of justification and the remission of sins.  That is, it is a non-meritorious, disposition that is an antecedent condition for Justification to take place (it being Scripturally required that for the remission of sins, one must repent).

Clark, Smauel – ch. 16, ‘Concerning the Order of Justification’  in Scripture-Justification, or a Discourse of Justification, according to the Evidence of Scripture-Light  (London: S. Bridge, 1698), pp. 83-84

Clark (1626-1701) was an English nonconformist, puritan minister who wrote a commentary on the Bible.  He followed in the trajectory of Baxter.

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1700’s

Halyburton, Thomas – ‘A Modest Inquiry whether Regeneration or Justification has the Precedency in Order of Nature’  in The Works of the Rev. Thomas Halyburton…  (London : Thomas Tegg, 1835), pp. 547-58

Amongst other helpful things, Halyburton argues the traditional reformed paradigm that regeneration is antecedent to justification, and not the other way around.

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Quotes

Order of

Junius
Zanchi
Rollock
Hooker
Field
Ainsworth
Pemble
Stoughton
W. Forbes
Davenant
Goodwin
Voet
Ball
Alting
Gataker
Rutherford
A. Burgess
Leigh
Grew
Scrivener
Baxter
Le Blanc
Manton
Owen
Turretin
Mastricht
Cunningham

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1500’s

Francis Junius

Introduction: On Justification by Faith  in Theological Theses for Exercises in Public Disputations in the Famous Academy at Leiden  (1584)  at ReformedOrthodoxy.org  The relevance here is Junius defining the issue as one of merit and saying that Justification by faith is a figurative expression.

“1. Justification is an action, by which God makes an ungodly man righteous, according to the good pleasure of his will, and without any merit of his own for salvation…

9. Therefore, although it is said figuratively, yet fittingly and truly, we say that we are justified by faith alone, comparing it with works and merits, and not by the works of the law, but by faith freely in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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Jerome Zanchi

Confession of the Christian Religion…  (1586; Cambridge, 1599), ch. 18. ’Of Repentance’, pp. 142-45

“…and first of repentance the continual and inseparable companion of faith.  For albeit it be daily made more perfect after justification, yet because no man is justified without repentance, and the beginning thereof goes before justification, therefore we have purposed in this first place to declare what our belief is concerning the same.

I. To Justification, and therefore to the communion with Christ, repentance is necessary.

1600’s

Richard Hooker

A Learned Discourse of Justification, Works & how the Foundation of Faith is Overthrown  (d. 1600; Oxford: Barnes, 1612), pp. 26-27

“If here it be demanded which of these we do first receive, I answere that the spirit, the virtues of the Spirit, the habitual justice which is engrafted, the external justice of Jesus Christ, which is imputed: these we receice all at one and the same time; whensoever we have any of these, we haue all; they goe together.

Yet since no man is justified except he believe, and no man believes except he have faith, and no man except he have received the spirit of adoption, has faith, for asmuch as they do necessarily infer justification, and justification does of necessity presuppose them: we must needs hold that imputed righteousness, in dignity being the chiefest, is notwithstanding in order the last of all these: but actual righteousness, which is the righteousness of good works, succeeds all, follows after all, both in order and time.

Which being attentively marked, shows plainly how the faith of true believers cannot be divorced from hope and love; how faith is a part of sanctification, and yet unto justification necessary; how faith is perfected by good works, and no work of ours without faith;”

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Richard Field

Of the Church...  (Oxford: Turner, 1628), bk. 3, appendix, ch. 11, p. 324  Field (1561–1616) was an Anglican theologian associated with Richard Hooker’s work.

“…those works of preventing grace, whereby out of the general apprehension of faith, God works in us dislike of our former condition, desire to be reconciled to God, to have remission of that [which] is past, and grace hereafter to decline the like evils, and to do contrary good things.  For by these we are prepared, disposed and fitted for justification; without these none are justified.

And in this sense, and to imply a necessity of these to be found in us, sometimes the Fathers and others say that we are not justified by faith only.  And we all agree, that it is not our conversion to God, nor the change we find in ourselves, that can any way make us stand in judgment without fear, and look for any good from God, otherwise than in that we find ourselves so disposed and fitted, as is necessary for justification, whence we assure ourselves God will in mercy accept us for Christs sake.”

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Henry Ainsworth

ed. Samuel White, The Orthodox Foundation of Religion long since collected by that judicious and elegant man, Mr. Henry Ainsworth  (London: Sparke, 1641), pt. 2, Mystery of Piety, p. 75

“And the covenants of God with men are of two sorts:

1. Legal, when upon condition of present and continued obedience to all his precepts, He promises life eternal.

2. Evangelical, when upon condition of repentance, faith and newness of life, He promises forgiveness of sins, and eternal life through Christ.”

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William Pemble

Vindiciae fidei, or A Treatise of Justification by Faith…  (Oxford, 1625)

section 1, ch. 2, pp. 11-12

“The third place is that, Rom. 8:30, ‘Whom God hath predestinated, these He hath called, whom called, justified; whom justified, glorified.’…

That sanctification is here comprised in the word ‘vocation.’  For whereas the links of this golden chain are inseparable, and all those that are called must needs be justified and glorified: by ‘vocation,’ must here be meant that calling which is inward and effectual, not that alone which is outward by the external ministry of the Word.  For all that are thus called, be not justified, as is apparent; and again, some, as infants, are justified that are not capable of such a [external] calling.

But now, wherein stands the inward vocation of a sinner?  Is it not in the infusion of inherent sanctifying grace, enlightning his eyes, opening his ear, changing his heart, turning him from darkeness to light, from the power of Satan to the obedience of God; in a word, in the renovation of his faculties?  Which, what is it else but sanctification? or regeneration?  or conversion?  Only styled by that tearm of ‘vocation’ in regard of the means whereby it is ordinarily effected (that is) the preaching of the Word.  He must needs coin us some new mystery in divinity who will persuade us that some other work of grace is meant by ‘vocation,’ and not that of sanctification.

Therefore we have neither one link snapped out, nor two shuffled together in this chain of our salvation: But four, as distinct, as undividable: Election, Sanctification (whereto we are called by the Gospel preached, 2 Thess. 2:14), Justification by Faith (which is a fruit of sanctification) and Glorification.”

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section 2, ch. 3, p. 49

“Faith sanctifies not as a cause, but as a part of infused grace: and such a part as goes not alone, but accompanied with all other graces of love, fear, zeal, hope, repentance, etc., inasmuch as man’s regeneration is not the infusion of one, but of the habit of all graces.

Again, tis not the virtue of faith that justifies us; The grace of justification is from God; He works it: but tis our faith applies it and makes it ours.  The act of justification is God’s mere work; but our faith only brings us the benefit and assurance of it.”

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Vindiciæ gratiæ. = A Plea for Grace, More especially the Grace of Faith…  (London: 1627), pp. 11-16

“Now to make application of this to our inquiry touching the original of faith, you may perceive by what is spoken, whereof faith is a part, and when faith is wrought in the soule: namely, that faith is a part of our sanctification, that faith is wrought in the soul then when we are regenerate by the infusion of the habit [inward power] of grace into our whole man.  This will appear if we distinguish between:

1. The habit of faith, which is in general the renewed quality of the soul, whereby it is made able to discern and yield assent unto, and also willing to put affiance in all divine truth revealed.

2. The act of faith, when the understanding and will do actually know and rely upon God’s truth and goodness.  This is a fruit of the former, and follows it in time; the former is a branch of the image of God restored unto us, a stream of the common fountain of sanctification, whence all graces flow, a part of our inherent righteousness, as is most apparant:

It being impossible that the understanding and will of man should be effectually inclined towards their spiritual and supernatural object, to give credence and put confidence in it, until such time as they be first rectified by grace and purged from their habitual inbred blindness and rebellion: Which change when it is wrought in the soul by the Spirit of grace, sanctifying and quickening it in all the powers thereof with spiritual life: then follow those living actions of faith, hope, love, etc. performed by the strength of inherent and assisting grace.

Wherefore we are not to imagine that faith is infused either before or without other graces, or that the soul is not at the same time and as soon disposed to love and fear God as to believe in Him, or to humility, to patience, to charity, to repentance, as for faith.  The seed of all these graces is sown at once; and for their habits they are coeval stems of one common root of inherent sanctity: though yet some of them shoot up faster and bear fruit sooner than other.
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Hence this conclusion is to be observed:  1. That faith properly is not the root of all other graces, nor the first degree of our sanctification and spiritual life.

Take faith in which sense we please, for the act or for the habit: If for the act, the habit [inward power] is before that, and the root of it; If for the habit, that is not before, but a part of our sanctification, nor yet a solitary habit infused alone by itself, but together with the actus primi [first act], or habits of all supernatural graces whatsoever.  Tis true in some sense that before faith, there is no life nor sanctity in the soul: because faith is a part of our life of grace and of sanctity.  But there are other parts too, hope, charity, etc. and of these it may be said as well as of faith, there’s no grace in the soul till hope and charity be wrought in it.  All are parts of our spiritual life wrought together.

For as the corporal, so the spiritual life is not one distinct, but omnes actus primi, of every faculty whereby it can work regularly.  And though in the body some part may live alone, and others be dead, yet in our spiritual life tis far otherwise, all powers are quickened and live together: where the habit of one grace is, there are all, and as soon all, as one, every faculty being rectified as well as any: and all the operations of each faculty tending to all its objects, renewed as well as any one operation directed to some one object.

Wherefore I see not, under correction of quick eyes, how faith can be accounted the root whence spring all other fruits of righteousness, the efficient cause of our sanctification, the only pipe through which the waters of life flow into the soul, that firstborn grace in our spiritual regeneration, so much that before its actual operation there is no jot of spiritual life and sanctity in our hearts.  Many divine eulogies are given to faith in the Scriptures, but none such as to cause us to make it the fountain of all graces.  That the heart is regenerate before the act of believing and other graces wrought therein, together with the habit of faith, may appear by these reasons:

1. It is the true and general doctrine of all divines, that actual faith is never wrought in the soul till, besides the supernatural illumination of the understanding, the will be also changed and freed in part from its natural perversness: For till this be done, tis utterly impossible it should ever embrace the promise.  Now the doing away of this ignorance and rebellion, what is it but an effect of the grace of sanctification implanted in the soul, by which it is sweetly and freely inclined to all heavenly things?

2. To believe is an action of a man living by grace, not dead in sin.  The soul therefore is first endued with the life of grace before it can perform this living action.

3. There can be no reason given why in our regeneration it should be necessary first to have faith before we can have any other grace of sanctification, no more than that it should be needful to have some other grace before we can have faith; or, why we are more fit being unconverted to receive the grace of faith rather than any other grace, as of repentance, etc.  A man unregenerate, having no preparations at all to any grace, is alike disposed to receive every one: and so there is no difference on man’s part.

If any say that the Spirit, which must work other graces, is not received till we do actually believe: in so saying he confutes himself, it being most apparant that the Spirit is given to men incredulous [unbelieving], to the end to make them believers: and no man should ever be converted were not the Holy Ghost given to him whilst he is unconverted, to work his conversion.  Now God, that for Christ’s sake gives faith unto us when we had none, without any predisposition in us to receive it, can and does for the same Christ’s sake give us all other graces as well at the same time.

4. It cannot well be shown how faith produces all other virtues in us, seeing that all habits of grace are infused, not acquired; and one habit cannot produce another, nor does one habit bring forth the operations of another.  Tis true that faith lends a hand to help forward all gracious actions, and does much in their guidance and direction; but tis like as the understanding guides the actions of the will and inferiour faculties, or as prudence moderates the actions of all other moral virtues; which actions notwithstanding come from their proper faculties and habits as their immediate principia and fountains.  But of this point more at large when we come to show the dependance that obedience has upon faith.

Against this may be objected that:

We live by faith, Gal. 2:20, that by faith Christ dwells in our hearts, Eph. 3:17, that through faith we are risen with Christ, Col. 2:12, that by faith we receive the Holy Ghost, Jn. 7:38-39; Eph. 1:13, so that we have no life till we be in Christ, no being in Him till we have faith to believe on Him, no sap from the vine, no virtue from the body till we be united as bran∣ches, as members, which union is by faith only; no Spirit of grace to give us life till we have faith to receive it.

In briefe thus: Christ by his Spirit is the author of all our spiritual life and sanctification.  But till we believe we have no participation nor fellowship with Christ and his Spirit.  Therefore till we believe we have in us no life at all, and consequently by faith we are made partakers of all life and grace.

To which I answer:  We must carefully distinguish between a twofold union and communion we have with Christ:

1. By the Spirit on his part: for Christ as by his death, he is the meritorious cause of life and grace unto the elect, so by his Spirit He is the only efficient of life and grace in the regenerate.  To whom, whilst they are yet dead in sin and destitute of all grace, so as they neither do nor possibly can believe, Christ sends his Spirit which breathes life into them, changes and purifies their nature by working all holy and rectified abilities in every part.

Now this first work of the Spirit, creating of grace in the soul, does most apparantly precede not only the act of believing, but the habit also: for the habit itself is infused by this work.  And therefore it is also manifest that before all faith we have and must have some participation with Christ, even to this end that we may have faith.  But this union with Him is wrought merely by the Holy Spirit, which is that band whereby Christ knits Himself to us, communicating all gracious and quickening virtue from Himself to us, and thereby making us living members of his body.

2. By our faith on our parts: when being quickened by infused grace we actually apply ourselves to embrace the promise and to rely upon Christ only.  And here we knit ourselves to Christ, resting upon Him alone for all comfort.  By which uniting of ourselves to Christ we receive a greater increase and larger measure of grace from Him.  In the first union we were insensible of it, and grace is given to us non petentibus, that asked not after it: in this second union we are most sensible of its comfort and benefit; and here an augmentation of grace is bestowed on us petentes, earnestly suing for it, and by faith expecting the receiving of it.

Wherefore I conclude, all grace and virtue whatsoever in us is given us from the fulness of Christ, the fountain of all supernatural life; but yet all is not wrought by Christ embraced by our faith, but by Christ conveying his grace unto us by his Spirit.  This first quickens us: we then with Lazarus after life put into us, can awake, stand up, come forth, and by faith look on Him that raised us, fall down, worship and believe in Him as our Lord and God.  The places alleged either touch not our sanctification at all, or speak only of the increase of grace, not of its first infusion, faith being a means of that, but no efficient or instrument of this.”

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John Stoughton

in Richard Baxter, Richard Baxter’s Confession (1655), ch. 10, sect. 3, p. 398-99  Stoughton (1593?–1639)

Sermon 7, p. 63

“It is a clear case, that these three [belief, fear and love] are the only means, yea a perfectly sufficient means to make the solder and the union between God and man, and to bring a man to the possession and fruition of God (for this comprehends the whole man), so that the whole man is possessed of God, and inflamed by God, when his understanding knows Him, and sees the excellency that is in Him, and when the affections of his heart cleave to Him, and close with the most sovereign affections of fear and love, and then when all his whole man is at the command of this, etc.”

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Introduction to Divinity, p. 30

“The parts are, faith apprehensive [apprehending], and love active: those truths are most properly fundamental, without which we cannot be made partakers of Christ, nor be enabled to do that by which we may be made partakers of God in Him, and so the sum of all is faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”

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William Forbes

Considerationes Modestae et Pacificae Controversiarum de Justificatione...  4th ed.  (d. 1634; 1658; Oxford: Parker, 1850), vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 3

p. 27

“4…  More rightly, therefore, do other Protestants, who are more sound and moderate, willingly concede that various disposing and preparing acts, produced in us through the Holy Ghost assisting, and not by the sole powers of our free-will, are required before justification, though most of them deny to these acts any power of justifying. (Pareus contra Bellarmine on Justification, bk. 1, ch. 3, p. 35, sect. secundo tenendum ff.; with many others)

5. Although not everything which has been said and written, and is commonly cited by Romanists and others for each of these disposing acts (e.g. ‘We are saved by hope,’ [Rom. 8:24] ‘Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much,’ [Lk. 7:47] and some others), fully proves the point in question, yet they greatly err who, on that account, deny the thing itself, which is most certain from innumerable other passages of Scripture.

6. All Protestants rightly deny that these disposing acts done by faith and preventing grace, merit justification in any way, even in that of congruity; but very many Romanists also deny this, in opposition to the opinion of Bellarmine…”

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p. 31

“And what needs it also that we should speak of the power of prayer, by which we, with the publican, and all other pious persons, do humbly beg from God pardon of our sins, in order to obtain the same, having been so taught by our Savior Himself, ‘Forgive us our sins,’ or of that of other previous acts–since the matter is clearer than the noon-day sun.  Nor does this interfere with our being justified gratis, as the Scripture teaches, for in these we put nothing at all of merit, any more than in faith itself…

Amandus Polanus, a writer rigid in other respects, yet compelled by the force of truth, lays down this thesis, as the universal opinion of all Protestants, and very agreeable to the teaching of the Fathers.

‘By repentance, confession, prayers, and tears, proceeding from faith, we obtain forgiveness of sins, but we do not, properly speaking, merit it; and therefore we obtain forgiveness of sins, not by the merit of our penitence and prayer, but by the mercy and benignity of God.’ (Catholic Symphony, ch. 27, On the Remission of Sins, p. 951 ff., thesis 2)

Which thesis, after a sufficiently sound elucidation, he confirms by some very clear testimonies of the Fathers, to which we could add numberless others, were not the thing itself most clear and certain.  Would that all Protestants constantly professed this opinion, thus enunciated by Polanus: for there would remain scarce any matter for controversy regarding this article among the more right-thinking of both sides.”

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John Davenant

A Treatise on Justification: or The Disputatio de justitia habituali et actuali…, vol. 1  trans. Josiah Allport  (d. 1641; London: Hamilton, 1844/1846), ch. 22, p. 160

“For we all acknowledge and clearly profess, that God infuses a righteousness of this kind in the very act of justifying; but we deny that the sentence of God in justifying has respectto this as to the cause by which man is constituted justified.”

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Thomas Goodwin

Man’s Restoration by Grace, ch. 5  in Works  (d. 1680; Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1861), vol. 7, p. 537

“Now yet this might stand, if as learned Mr. [William] Pemble and others assert, sanctification does, in order of nature, precede justification, and which to me seems not remote from truth, or prejudicial to the grace of justification at all, and withal consonant to right reason, for if (as all grant) justification be upon an act of faith on Christ for justification, and that not until then we are justified, as all do and must acknowledge that hold justification by faith, according to the Scriptures, and that an act of faith must proceed from a principle of faith habitually wrought, then necessarily sanctification, taking it for the principles of habitual sanctification, must be in order of nature afore justification; for the seed and principle of faith is a part, and a principal part, of regeneration or sanctification, as taken in that sense, for the working the principles of all grace, and so is agreeable to that order and chain, Rom. 8:29, where ‘called’ is put before being ‘justified,’ as predestination is put before being called, understanding calling, of the working [of] the principles of regeneration.”

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Gisbert Voet

9. ‘Justification’, Of Justification in General  in Syllabus of Theological Problems  (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 3   Abbr.

“Whether the infusion of grace is required for justification?  It is distinguished.

“Whether some movement of free choice and faith is required?  It is affirmed with a distinction.

Whether a movement of free choice contra sin?  It is disintinguished.

Whether the remission of sins is to number the premises and prerequisites of justification?  It is denied.

Whether the infusion of grace is by order of nature first amongst those things which are required for justification?  It is distinguished.
…

Whether inhering righteousness is the cause of justification?  It is denied.
…

Whether the righteousness of the justified is inhering or imputed?  The latter is affirmed contra the Papists.
…

Whether we deny all inherent righteousness?  It is denied.
…

Whether sanctification or regeneration precedes justification, or the contrary?  It is distinguished.
…

Whether it [justification] precedes repentance?  It is distinguished.
…

Whether and in what way the law and penitence are able to be said to concur unto our justification?  It is explained.”

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John Ball

A Treatise of the Covenant of Grace…  (London: 1645)

ch. 3, ‘Of the Covenant of Grace in General’, pp. 20-21

“A disposition to good works is necessary to justification, being the qualification of an active and lively faith…

Sincere, uniform and constant [obedience], though imperfect in measure and degree, and this is so necessary that without it there is no salvation to be expected.  The Covenant of Grace calls for perfection, accepts sincerity, God in mercy pardoning the imperfections of our best performances.  If perfection was rigidly exacted, no flesh could be saved: if not at all commanded, imperfection should not be sin, nor perfection to be labored after.  The faith that is lively to embrace mercy is ever conjoined with an unfeigned purpose to walk in all well-pleasing, and the sincere performance of all holy obedience, as opportunity is offered, does ever attend that faith whereby we continually lay hold upon the promises once embraced.

Actual good works of all sorts (though not perfect in degree) are necessary to the continuance of actual justification, because faith can no longer lay faithful claim to the promises of life, than it does virtually or actually lead us forward in the way to Heaven.  For:

‘If we say we have fellowship with God and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,’ 1 Jn. 1:6-7.

This walking in the light as He is in the light is that qualification whereby we become immediately capable of Christ’s righteousness, or actual participants of his propitiation, which is the sole immediate cause of our justification, taken for remission of sins, or actual approbation with God.  The truth of which doctrine St. John likewise ratifies in terms equivalent, in the words presently following: ‘and the blood of Christ cleanseth us’ (walking in the light as God is in the light) ‘from all sin.’ [v. 7]”

.

ch. 6, ‘Of the Covenant of Grace as it was made and manifested to Abraham’, pp. 73-75

“So that we may conclude from this passage of holy writ [Gen. 15:6], that Abraham was justified by faith alone: but this his faith, though alone in the act of justification, no other grace co-working with it, was not alone in existence, did not lie dead in him as a dormant and idle quality.

Saving faith is lively and operative, attended with every other grace of the Spirit, setting them upon their work, animating and quickening them thereto, and regulating them therein.  It stirs up sorrow for sin, and purpose of amendment; it raises the soul earnestly to long after, and heartily to crave mercy: it comes to Christ as a humble, poor, penitent petitioner for forgiveness: but that which is done by faith stirring up sorrow, and working by prayer, is not done partly by faith, partly by sorrow, and partly by prayers, but by that faith which does enforce to pray.

For faith leans upon the promise, and no promise is made, the condition of prayer being shut forth.  ‘Ask, and it shall be given you,’ Mk. 11.24.  Therefore our Savior Christ being entreated of many that He would heal them, attributes all the force of their prayers to faith, ‘Thy faith has saved thee.’

And so by what faith Abraham embraced the promise, by the same he offered up his son Isaac [Gen. 22].  Works then (or a purpose to walk with God) justify (Jm. 2:22-23) as the passive qualification of the subject capable of justification, or as the qualification of that faith that justifies; or as they testify or give proof that faith is lively: but faith alone justifies, as it embraces the promise of free forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

Abraham’s faith was accepted for righteousness, but Abraham himself is commanded to walk before God, and to be perfect (Gen. 17:1).  There are diverse phrases in the Scripture of the Old Testament, expressing the same thing for substance:

As to walk before God, Gen. 17:1, Septuagint: [Greek]; and 24:40; and 48:15; 1 Kn. 3:6, Septuagint: [Greek]; Ps. 116:9; Isa. 38:3; Ps. 56:14; 1 Kn. 9:4: to walk with God, Gen. 5:22 and 6:9; Mal. 2:6; Mic. 6:8: to walk after God, 2 Kn. 23:3; Hos. 11:10: to walk in the name of God, Zech. 10:12: to walk in the ways of God, 1 Kn. 3:14; Dt. 10:12–14: wholly to follow after the Lord, i.e. to exhibit full obedience to the Lord, Num. 32:12; Dt. 1:36; Josh. 14:14: to stand in the sight of God, 1 Kn. 17:1: to walk in the light of the Lord, Isa. 2:5: to walk in equity, Isa. 57:2: to walk in truth, in judgment and uprightness, 1 Kn. 2.4, and 3:6; 2 Kn. 20:6.

The two first phrases of walking with God and before God, the Septuagint interpreters do most commonly render, ‘to please God’; though now and then they retain the phrase of walking with or before God, or walking after God: and the apostle seems to have respect unto their translation when he does so allege it, Heb. 11:5, ‘for he is reported to have pleased God.’

In the New Testament there are phrases that import the same thing for substance:

As to walk in the truth, 2 Jn. 4: to walk in all the commandments, statutes and ordinances of the Lord, Lk. 1:6: to walk worthy of the Lord, that is, as becomes the sons of God, 1 Thess. 2:12; Eph. 4:2: and to please Him in all things, Col. 1:10: to walk in Christ, Col. 2:6, that is to do all after the rule and command of Christ, and set before our eyes his glory, as the white we shoot at in all affairs great and small.

To walk with or before God then is to commit ourselves wholly to his care and divine protection both in life and all our actions, and assuredly to persuade ourselves that He is the present and just beholder of all thoughts, words and actions; to reverence Him as ever present and beholding all things; to be ready at his beck and command, studiously, readily, cheerfully to receive his commandments, and at all times reverently to demean and carry ourselves before Him: to turn our eyes and fix all our senses upon the Lord, and to attribute whatever good we enjoy to the Lord alone.

In brief, to walk before God is from a true and sincere heart to believe, think and do whatsoever God prescribes, and that in such manner as He prescribes; to attend upon the pure worship of God, and to live holily, justly, unblameably: as they are said to be just before God, who are truly and sincerely just, or such as are righteous by way of eminency in comparison of others: what is done sincerely and excellently is said to be done before the Lord, 1 Thess. 1:3; Lk. 1.75; 1 Thess. 3:13.  Thus Abraham was commanded, and by the grace of God enabled to walk with or before God, Gen. 24.40, and 48.15.”

.

Henry Alting

Common Places, pt. 2, p. 688  trans. Richard Baxter, Richard Baxter’s Confession of his Faith…  (d. 1644; London: 1655), ch. 3, p. 408

“The gospel does not promise salvation on condition of good works as causes effecting it, but on condition of faith and repentance: the one as an instrument of accepting remission of sins the other as a causa sine qua non [casue without which: nothing]: nor on condition of such repentance or new obedience as is perfect, but such as is by grace begun.”

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Thomas Gataker

A Mistake or Misconstruction Removed (Whereby little difference is pretended to have been acknowledged between the Antinomians & us)…  (London: Clifton, 1646), pp. 9-10  Note, according to Westminster, “purposing and endeavoring to walk with him in all the ways of his commandments” is part of the definition of repentance; WCF 15.2.

“Now consider we in the next place what manner of preaching our Savior Christ’s was, that collating the Gospel by this man [the Antinomian Saltmarsh] described, with the Gospel that Christ preached, we may see how well they sort and suit the one with the other.

‘I came,’ says our Savior, ‘to call sinners to repentance’ (Mt 3:13): and, ‘Unlesse ye repent, ye shall all perish,’ (Lk. 13:3, 5) and, ‘Verily, I say unto you, Unless ye be converted and become like children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven,’ (Mt. 18:3) and, ‘If a man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.’ (Mt. 16:23)  And, ‘If any man come to Me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.’ (Lk. 14:26)  And, ‘Whosoever he be of you that forsakes not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.’ (Lk. 14:33)

Here is no such short work as Mr. Saltmarsh makes of it.  Here are conditions, you see, required; and those not of faith alone, but of repentance and humiliation, and self-denial, and conversion, and renouncing of all, in disposition and purpose at least.”

.

Shadows without Substance, or Pretended New Lights: together with the impieties and blasphemies that lurk under them, further discovered and drawn forth into the light: in way of rejoinder unto Mr. John Saltmarsh’s Reply entitled Shadows Flying Away…  (London: Bostock, 1646)

p. 40

“…pardon of sin and salvation are propounded and preached upon condition of faith, repentance and newness of life, which are the conditions of the gospel; and yet may they also be so termed, as conditions of peace, upon agreement unto, and performance whereof, peace may be had (Lk. 14:31), which otherwherewise cannot be obtained.

Only sir, I shall endeavour by help of logic out of Scripture thus to justify the use of that term:

That which is so propounded as that being performed, life and salvation may undoubtedly be attained and without which it cannot be had, may well be termed a condition.

But such are the things before mentioned.

They may therefore justly be termed conditions.”

.

p. 47

“As for repentance and new obedience; there is as much difference between them and faith, in regard of its peculiar office, in this latter [New] Covenant; so much more between them and works in the former [Old Covenant].

1. Between them and faith, in the point of justification, or the discharge of a sinner from the guilt of his sins; for that, howsoever they are both required as conditions to be necessarily performed by all those that expect life, or pardon of sin, and salvation by Christ; yet neither of them comes in, as having any hand in the business of our justification, or discharge of us from the guilt of our sin; because that neither do they cast ought in toward the discharge of our debt, nor have they any peculiar act in the application of, or special relation unto, that whereby our debt is discharged.

Whereas our faith, though it afford not the least mite of itself toward the making up of that price wherewith our debt is to be discharged, yet it is that whereby we receive Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:12) and in Him and with Him the price by Him paid for us, and whereby we trust to Him and rely upon Him for the discharge of our debt by the merit of his sufferings: in regard whereof it is called, as ‘faith on Christ’ (Acts 20:21; 26:18), so more specially, on his blood. (Rom. 3:25)”

.

p. 48

“4. For to your first demand, ‘Is this free grace?’  I shall crave leave to return you a counter-demand:

Suppose a king be content at the suit either of the parties themselves or some friend of theirs, to grant his gracious pardon to a company of notorious rebels that had risen against him, set up some base desperate rogue in his room, done him all the despight and mischeif they were able to do; and being apprehended, arraigned and condemned to such death as by their wicked demerits they had most justly deserved, upon condition that they aknowledge their offence and their sorrow for it, with purpose and promise of living loyally for time to come; whether you would deem this to be free grace, or no?

…refer it to any indifferent reader whatsoever to determine, whether he were not a most ungracious wretch, that having his pardon on such terms granted and signed him, should in regard of those conditions, deny it to be of free grace: and whether they do not blaspheme God’s free-grace that deny it to be free grace, if it be propounded on terms of belief, repentance and amendement of life.

Sir, whatsoever you say of us, take heed how you tell Christ that He does not freely save you if He will not save you unless you believe.”

.

p. 58

“If the Gospel propound and promise pardon of sin and salvation without any condition at all required on our part, and on all such conditions and qualifications, of belief, repentance and new obedience, destroy the freeness of grace, then neither Christ, nor John Baptist, nor the apostles preached Gospel or free grace; for they thus preached and propounded pardon of sin and salvation upon such terms from the first to the last.”

.

Samuel Rutherford

Christ Dying & Drawing Sinners to Himself…  (London: 1647), pt. 1, p. 102

“…Libertines, who deny that justification, the Covenant of Grace and salvation have any the most gracious conditions in us; for that should obscure the freedom of Grace (they say)…

But I hope faith is a work of free grace, and must presuppose conversion and a new heart as an essential condition, else with Pelagians they must say that out of the principles of nature all are to believe; and this obscures far more the freedom of the grace of God working faith in us than all the conditions of grace, which we hold to be subservient, not contrary to the freedom of grace.”

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Anthony Burgess

The True Doctrine of Justification Asserted & Vindicated...  (London: Miller, 1651), Lecture 1, pp. 6-8

“First, the word [justificare] does imply an accounting just: And this is acknowledged by the Papists themselves as more frequent though they plead much for such a sense as to make just.  Now the truth is there needs not much quarrel even about that signification, though the Scripture does not manifest it: For we confess that he is made just, who is justified, and that not only in respect of the inward renovation of a man, but also in respect of justification; for God does not account him just who is not so, and certainly to esteem a man just without righteousness, is as absurd as to account a man learned without learning, or the wall white without whiteness; only we say this righteousness that does to make a man just, is not inherent in him, but reckoned to him by the satisfaction of another: for a man is accounted righteous two ways, either when he is not guilty of the crime charged upon him, or when he does make satisfaction; and in this latter sense by Christ we become righteous.

2. So that if the word should signify as much as to make righteous, as to sanctify does signify to make holy, still we could grant it, though not in the Popish way; and indeed the apostle, Rom. 5, says many are made righteous by the second Adam, which if not meant of inherent holiness, does imply that the righteousness we have by Christ is not merely declarative, but also constitutive; and indeed one is in order before the other, for a man must be righteous before he can be pronounced or declared so to be.  But the Hebrew word does not signify this sense primarily; for whereas the Hebrew word in [the tense] Cal[?] does signify to be righteous by a positive quality; The word in Hiphil, according to that rule in grammar, signifies to attribute and account this righteousness unto a man by some words, or other testimony, even as the word that in Cal signifies to be wicked, does in Hiphil signify to condemn and judge a man as wicked, so that there are these two things in justifying, whereof one is the ground of the other, first to make righteous, and then to pronounce or declare so.”

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Edward Leigh

A System or Body of Divinity...  (London, 1654), bk. 7, ch. 10, ‘Whether Faith Alone does Justify?’, p. 530

“Whether sanctification precede justification.

Bishop [George] Downame in his appendix to the Covenant of Grace, does oppose my worthy tutor Mr. [William] Pemble for holding this opinion, but perhaps a distinction may solve all.

As sanctification is taken for the act of the Holy Ghost working holiness into us, so it goes before faith and justification, so the apostle puts it before justifying, saying 1 Cor. 6:11, ‘But ye are sanctified, justified;’ but as it is taken for the exercise of holiness in regard of amendment of heart and life, so it follows justification in nature, but it is joined with it in time.  The apostle Rom. 8:30, places vocation before justification, which vocation is the same thing with the first sanctification or regeneration. See Acts 26:18.”

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Obadiah Grew

The Lord Jesus Christ the Lord our Righteousness…  (London, 1669), pp. 155-56

“Therefore secondly, we say that there are other graces coexistent with faith in the person justified.  A solitary faith is not a saving and justifying faith: Faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone.  Faith that is alone saves not, though faith alone save.  As the act of seeing is by the eye only, without the ear, or other senses; the eye only sees; the ear sees not, nor the taste, nor the smell, nor the feeling; yet the eye could not see if you should take away the other senses from the body.

So it’s faith only that justifies without other graces or good works; yet faith without them, or separated from them, cannot justify: because indeed it cannot be without them in the person or subject where it is.  So that faith is without other graces and works in its office, but not in its existence.  And you may as soon part light and heat in the sun, as sanctification from justification in a believer.  For faith is not only a fruit of the Spirit with other graces, but also the seed and nursery of other graces, because faith in Christ is the root-grace…

It would be a strange soul that should give a faculty of seeing and no other faculty or sense: as strange a state of grace would that be that should give an act of saving and justifying faith and give no other grace besides.”

.

Matthew Scrivener

A Course of Divinity...  (London: Roycroft, 1674), pt. 1, bk. 1

ch. 17, ‘…In what manner Sanctification goes before Justification, and how it follows it’, pp. 62-63

“Justification and Sanctification agree in their foundation, which is at least inchoate, and initial holiness.  For, though no man’s inherent holiness arises so high as to denominate him truly just, or holy, for its own sake; yet both to Sanctification and Justificati∣on, is necessarily required some preparatory and imperfect holiness, consisting principally in the conversion of the mind to God, from sin…

But on the other side, they are distinct in some formalities, such as these may be, for first, the immediate cause of our sanctification is in holy Scripture imputed to the operation and influence of the Holy Spirit, as our Justification is more properly attributed to Christ the mediator between God and man: As appears from St. Paul’s words to the Thessalonians, ‘But we are bound to give thanks always for you brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.’ (2 Thess. 2:13)  And St. Peter, ‘Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and Sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience.’ (1 Pet. 1:2)
…

Lastly, to search no farther into this point, before justification there must of necessity go some degree of sanctification, even in the opinion of such as contend most rigorously for freeness of justification:”

.

ch. 20, p. 73

“All this while we have treated of the complex notion of faith; or at least, as it is that first general grace whereby we are inserted into Christ, and justified by it together with its blessed retinue of subordinate evangelical graces, which are reduced to these three, Faith, Hope and Charity: where faith stands by itself, and is a peculiar grace of itself, and has in this acceptation a more than common prerogative attributed unto it in order to our justification, or the bringing us to Christ, and partaking of Christ.  For that is it whereby we are only properly justified; and all graces serve for no other end here, than to adapt us for the benefit of justification through Christ, and for Christ’s sake alone.”

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Richard Baxter

Catholic Theology, Plain, Pure, Peaceable...  (London: White, 1675), Preface, n.p.

“I had never read one Socinian, nor much of any Arminians…  and I remembered two or three things in Dr. [William] Twisse (whom I most esteemed) which inclined me to moderation in the five Articles [disputed between Arminians and the Reformed]:

…
5. That faith is but causa dispositiva justificationis, and so is repentance.”

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Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Theological Theses published at Various Times in the Academy of Sedan, vol. 1  3rd ed.  tr. by AI by Colloquia Scholastica at Discord  (1675; London, 1683), on How Faith Justifies, pp. 228-29, 234  Latin

“XXX. Indeed, when we say that faith alone justifies, we do not even mean by that merely the act of believing taken precisely, as it is opposed to acts of love and hope, and is distinguished from repentance, or penitence, as being the condition demanded by the new covenant, or Gospel, for us to obtain the remission of our sins and to be absolved from them because of Christ.  For just as the hope of pardon and the love of God, as well as sorrow for sin and the purpose of leading a new life, and, in a word, all the acts necessary for true and sincere conversion, are also required, so they are necessary and altogether prerequisite so that anyone may be received into favor by God and may be regarded by Him as justified.  Indeed, that living and operative faith which we affirm justifies alone includes and involves all these acts.

XXXI. And just as Scripture frequently asserts that we obtain the remission of sins through faith, so, no less frequently and expressly, does it teach that repentance and the entire conversion of the sinner to God are conditions without which the remission of sins cannot be obtained from God, and which, no less than faith, are required beforehand for it, although it neither effects nor merits it.  To this belongs Solomon’s saying, already cited before, “He who hides his sins will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”  And what Christ says in Luke, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”  Hence it is that Peter thus exhorts the Jews, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins,” Acts 2:38.  And, “Repent, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,” Acts 3:19.
…

LII. From what has now been explained, it is clear that the doctors of both the Roman and Reformed Schools recognize by common consent:

…
2. That only living faith justifies, while dead faith contributes nothing to justice and salvation.

3. That not only the act of believing taken precisely but many other acts also, which concur to true repentance and serious conversion to God, are conditions required by God for one to obtain from Him the remission of sins and the infusion of new and habitual justice.

4. That the remission of sins and the renewal of the inner man are purely gratuitous gifts of God, which are not due out of justice to faith or any works, however much performed by the grace of God.

5. That it is fitting and suitable to divine goodness and wisdom to remit sins and grant the grace of the Holy Spirit to a sinner who sincerely repents and flees to God’s mercy by faith, but not to the unbelieving and impenitent.

6. That the new justice which the Holy Spirit creates in the faithful consists not only of the habit of faith but also of other Christian virtues.”

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Thomas Manton

A Second Volume of Sermons…  (London: Astwood, 1684), Sermons on Rom. 8, Sermon 43, on Rom. 8:33, pp. 334-35

“3. How it can stand with the wisdom, justice and holiness of God to justify a sinner?  ‘Tis a great crime to take the unrighteous to be righteous; and to pronounce the wicked justified, seems to be against the Word of God, Prov. 24:24, ‘He that saith unto the wicked, ‘Thou art righteous,’ him shall the people curse; nations shall abhor him.’  Prov. 17:15, ‘He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination unto the Lord.’  Now what is an abomination unto the Lord is surely contrary to his nature, Ex. 34:7, ‘He will by no means clear the guilty.’  Answer:

…
3. Effectual calling, or the conversion of man, reconciles it with his holiness; for a sinner, as a sinner, is not justified, but a penitent believer [is]: ’tis true ’tis said, ‘God justifieth the ungodly,’ Rom. 4:5: those that were once so, but not those that continue so; certainly He sanctifies before he justifies, Acts 26:18:

‘To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified, by faith that is in Me;’

and in many other places.  No man is freed from the guilt of sin, which renders us obnoxious to God’s wrath, who is not freed from the filth of sin, which taints our faculties; for Christ is made to us both righteousness and sanctification, 1 Cor. 1:30.

By losing God’s image, we lost his favor; and in the order wherein we lost it, we recover it.  God regenerates that He may pardon and justify, and restores first our holiness and then our happiness: ’tis not consistent with God’s holiness to give us pardon and let us alone in our sins.  A man would not put a toad in his bosom.

But more fully to give you a prospect into this matter, let us take notice of the several things which are mentioned in Scripture, as belonging to our justification: as for instance:

Sometimes we are said to be justified by grace, as Rom. 3:24, ‘Being justified freely by his grace’: sometimes by the blood of Christ, as Rom. 5:9, ‘Being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him’: sometimes by faith, as Rom. 5:1, ‘Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’: sometimes by works, James 2:24, ‘Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.’

All these things concur to our justification and do not contradict, but imply one another: The first moving cause of all is grace; the meritorious cause, is Christs blood: the means of applying, or the condition on our part upon which we are capable at first of receiving so great a privilege, is faith: and the means of continuing in our justified estate, is by good works, or new obedience.

I say, our first actual pardon, justification, and right to life, is given upon condition of our first faith and repentance; but this estate is continued to us both by faith, Rom. 1:17 and new obedience; these fairly accord.  The grace of God will do nothing without the intervention of Christ’s merits; and Christ’s merits do not profit us ’till it be applied by faith; and sound believers will live in a course of new obedience.”

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John Owen

The Doctrine of Justification by Faith…  (London: Boulter, 1677),

General Considerations, p. 34

“(6) Works may be considered either as meritorious ex condigno, so as their merit should arise from their own intrinsic worth, or ex congruo only with respect unto the Covenant and promise of God.  Those of the first sort are excluded at least from the first justification; the lat­ter may have place both in the first and second.

(7) Moral causes may be of many sorts; preparatory, dispository, meri­torious, conditionally efficient, or only sine quibus non.  And we must diligently inquire in what sense, under the notion of what cause or causes, our works are excluded from our justification, and under what notions they are necessary thereunto.  And there is no one of these distinctions but it needs many more to explain it, which accordingly are made use of by learned men.”

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p. 104

“Wherefore we say the faith whereby we are justified is such as is not found in any but those who are made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and by Him united unto Christ, whose nature is renewed, and in whom there is a principle of all grace and purpose of obedience.”

.

p. 143

“For a condition does suspend that whereof it is a condition from existence, until it be accomplished…

But it is not yet proved, nor ever will be, that whatever is required in them that are to be justified, is a condition whereon their justification is immediately suspended.  We allow that alone to be a condition of justification which has an influence of causality thereunto, though it be but the causality of an in­strument.  This we ascribe unto faith alone.”

.

Francis Turretin

Institutes of Elenctic Theology, tr. George M. Giger, ed. James Dennison Jr.  (1679–1685; P&R, 1994), vol. 2, 16^th Topic, 8. ‘Does faith alone justify?  We affirm against the Romanists.’, pp. 677, 680-81

“VI. (3) The question is not whether solitary faith (i.e. separated from the other virtues) justifies (which we grant could not easily be the case, since it is not even true and living faith); but whether it “alone” (sola) concurs to the act of justification (which we assert); as the eye alone sees, but not when torn out of the body.

Thus the particle “alone” (sola) does not determine the subject, but the predicate (i.e., “faith only does not justify [sola fides non justificat], but “faith justifies alone” [fides justificat sola]).  The coexistence of love in him who is justified is not denied; but its coefficiency or cooperation in justification is denied.  (4) The question is not whether the faith “which justifies” (quae justificat) works by love (for otherwise it would not be living but dead); rather the question is rather faith “by which it justifies” (qua justificat) or in the act itself of justification, is to be considered under such a relation (schesei) (which we deny).
…

XIII.  It is one thing for love and works to be required in the person who is justified (which we grant); another in the act itself or causality of justification (which we deny).  If works are required as concomitants of faith, they are not on that account determined to be causes of justification with faith or to do the very thing which faith does in the matter.

XIV.  Although the whole force of justifying on the part of man is in faith as to the act of apprehension (so that other virtues contribute nothing to it with faith), it does not follow that faith can justify when they are absent as well as when they are present–yea, even wehn the opposite vices are present.  It is one thing to justify without virtues (i.e., separated from them–which we deny); another for it to justify alone, but not separated from them.

As it does not follow, the hand alone writes and the eye alone sees–therefore [it does this] as much when torn from the head and the other members as [it does when it is] in the body; the sole force of respiration is in the lungs–therefore the lungs can respire torn out from the liver and other viscera as well as when connected to them (which everyone sees to be absurd).

Natural potencies are connected as to existence, but disjoined as to operation.  Light and heat in the sun are most closely connected together, but still the light alone illuminates, the heat alone warms.  Therefore, although the other virtues do not justify with faith, still faith cannot justify in their absences, much less the opposite vices being present.  For faith cannot be true except in connection with the virtues (which if they do not contribute to justification, still contribute to the existence and life of faith, which the presence of vices would destroy).
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XX.  Although remission of sins is promised to repentance (because it ought to accompany faith and be in him who is justified as a certain condition requisite from him because God cannot pardon sin to an impenitent), it does not follow that it can be said to justify with faith because it contributes nothing (neither meritoriously, nor instrumentally) to the act of justification.”

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Peter van Mastricht

Theoretical Practical Theology  (2nd ed. 1698; RHB), vol. 5, pt. 1, bk. 6, ch. 6, ‘The Justification of those to be Redeemed’

pp. 121

“XIII…  But, so that we may perceive this more easily and correctly, it must be maintained that:

(1) good works, simply, confer entirely nothing to obtain for us the right to eternal life, because that is the pure, unadulterated [Greek; charisma], gift, of God (Rom. 6:23), impetrated by only the righteousness of Christ; but at the same time

(2) their presence is required for many reasons, if not before all justification, at least with justification and after it.”

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p. 128

XXII…  Fourth, it is asked whether good works are prerequisite for justification.

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(4) There is not lacking one or another, by profession Reformed, who states that a zeal for good works is prerequisite with faith for justification, at least not as the dikaioma [righteousness] on account of which we are justified, but as a condition without which God does not will to grant us the righteousness of Christ, on account of which alone we are justified.

(5) Indeed, there are not lacking among recent theologians those who teach a justification of the justified that happens
with works going before it, whereby the one justified justifies himself from hypocrisy, which depends upon an inherent holiness, albeit imperfect, yet sincere.
…

(7) Protestants in common, in agreement with Augustine, think that good works do not precede the one to be justified, but follow the one who is justified, yet with the differences of stages observed…”

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1800’s

William Cunningham

Historical Theology  (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1863), vol. 2, ch. 21, ‘Justification’, section 1, ‘Popish & Protestant Views’

p. 22

“They did not hold that faith was the only thing which invariably accompanies justification, or even that it was the only thing required of men in order to their being justified; for they admitted that repentance was necessary to forgiveness, in accordance with the doctrine of our [Westminster] standards, that, ‘to escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, God requireth of us repentance unto life,’ [WSC #85] as well as ‘faith in  Jesus  Christ.’”

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p. 88

“It  still  continues  equally  true,  upon  the  Protestant  as  upon  the Romish  doctrine  of  justification,  that  God  requires  of  us  faith and  repentance,  and  requires  them  of  us  as  indispensably  necessary to  our  escaping  His  wrath  and  curse  due  to  us  for  our  sins, though  not  as  exerting  any  causality  or  efficiency  in  procuring or  obtaining  for  us  pardon  and  acceptance,  except  instrumentally  in  the  case  of  faith;”

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 “…purifying their hearts by faith.”

Acts 15:9

“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:”

2 Thess. 2:13

“Verily, I say unto you, Unless ye be converted and become like children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Mt. 18:3

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