Part 25


Article XX: _Of Good Works._

In the Twentieth Article they distinctly lay down these words, namely,
that they reject and condemn our statement that men do not merit the
remission of sins by good works. [Mark this well!] They clearly
declare that they reject and condemn this article. What is to be
said on a subject so manifest? Here the framers of the _Confutation_
openly show by what spirit they are led. For what in the Church is
more certain than that the remission of sins occurs freely for
Christ's sake, that Christ, and not our works, is the propitiation
for sins, as Peter says, Acts 10, 43: To Him give all the prophets
witness that through His name, whosoever believeth on Him, shall
receive remission of sins? [This strong testimony of all the holy
prophets may duly be called a decree of the catholic Christian Church.
For even a single prophet is very highly esteemed by God and a
treasure worth the whole world.] To this Church of the prophets we
would rather assent than to these abandoned writers of the
Confutation, who so impudently blaspheme Christ. For although there
were writers who held that after the remission of sins men are just
before God, not by faith, but by works themselves, yet they did not
hold this, namely, that the remission of sins itself occurs on
account of our works, and not freely for Christ's sake.

Therefore the blasphemy of ascribing Christ's honor to our works is