Thesium de vita aeterna et eius haeredibus decades X

8. But regarding the calling of the Elect (through the preaching of the Gospel), which is special and efficacious, from which they are named παντοί all of Jesus Christ, Paul says: You also trusted in Christ, having heard the word of truth, that is, the Gospel of your salvation: in which also, after you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, etc. Eph. 1, verse 13.
9. Now indeed, since the gifts and calling of God are such that God cannot repent of them (Rom. 11, verse 29) and the Holy Spirit is the seal and earnest of our inheritance, who would doubt that the grace of our election is as immutable as it is free?
10. When the Apostle Peter commands us to make our calling and election firm, he speaks of the declaration of both through good works, that is, through their effects, as certain τεκμήρια evidences. In itself, since it relies on the purpose of God, election is most firm, but in us, it must be confirmed daily through the effects of faith.

LEONHARD HOSPINIAN, of Basel.

1. God justifies the ungodly, imputing His own faith to each elect person for righteousness. Rom. 4, verse 5. From this we conclude:
2. First, that justification presupposes preceding impiety and unrighteousness in man.
3. Second, that it is the work of God alone to justify man, who is by nature a child of wrath, and by grace a child of God and elect.
4. Third, that we are justified by faith, as the organic cause apprehending Christ and applying His merits: not as a work of the law.
5. Fourth, that its form is the act itself of the remission of our sins and the imputation of Christ's righteousness, by which both the guilt is taken away, and the good, which we need for life, is conferred.
6. Fifth, that its matter is Christ, with all the righteousness He fulfilled for our sake, which is most absolute in all its parts.
7. Sixth, that we are justified neither because of faith nor because of our works: even if we are said to be justified by faith and from faith, or through faith.
8. The ends of justification are that God Himself may be just and the justifier of the one who is of the faith of Jesus. Rom. 3, verse 26. Therefore, the proximate end of our justification is that, by the imputation of having been made righteous, we may be acceptable to God: the superior end is the declaration of the righteousness of God. For the Lord so justifies us that He proves by the very deed that He is supremely both just and merciful.
9. The righteousness of Faith and Works, or of the Gospel and the Law, does not differ in form or species, but in manifestation and in instrumental and final causes, Rom. 3, verse 21.